KUALA LUMPUR – DAP state committees have until October 17 to submit their 15th general election (GE15) candidates to a newly formed five-member panel, said party secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook.
The incumbent Seremban MP said that the fresh committee will feature himself and four other DAP leaders, including party chairman Lim Guan Eng, deputy Gobind Singh Deo, vice-president M. Kulasegaran, as well as vice national chairman Nga Kor Ming.
“(After October 17), the committee will then convene and consider the nominations received,” he told reporters at the DAP headquarters here after concluding the party’s central executive committee (CEC) meeting late last night.
While Loke did not disclose when the party’s full list of candidates will be revealed, he said that the committee looking to resolve the matter before the Deepavali festivities.
“We hope that the candidacy process can be settled before Deepavali celebrations on October 24 (Monday).”
He noted that the party has some “additional time” since the Election Commission (EC) will only be holding a special meeting on October 20 to decide on key dates for GE15.
Besides that, Loke said that the issue of whether or not the DAP-led Penang state assembly will be dissolved to run concurrently polls with the general election will be brought to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council.
“It was decided during the meeting earlier that the issue should be brought to the PH presidential council in a meeting tomorrow evening,” he said.
He added that there are various factors which must be considered in resolving the matter, especially regarding current voter sentiments in the state.
“After Parliament was dissolved, there was a strong reaction from Penang citizens calling for simultaneous state and federal elections because they don’t want to go out to vote twice,” he said.
It was previously reported that the Penang administration was still mulling its dissolution, with chief minister and state DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow referring the matter to the party’s CEC and PH’s presidential council.
This came despite Loke’s assertions that PH-led states of Penang, Negri Sembilan and Selangor would not be dissolved in tandem with GE15.
Following the dissolution of Parliament on October 10, Loke said that all three state government administrations will instead focus on helping the rakyat to brace for the year-end flood season.
Yesterday, Selangor received the consent of Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah not to dissolve its legislative assembly in line with the dissolution of Parliament.
Meanwhile, Loke also said all DAP state conventions have been put on hold until the conclusion of GE15, except for the Pahang DAP convention scheduled for October 16. – The Vibes, October 12, 2022
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