[UPDATED] Pakatan shuts door on electoral pact with PSM

KUALA LUMPUR – Pakatan Harapan (PH) has apparently rejected an electoral pact with Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) six days before nomination day.

PSM said that it was informed of the coalition’s decision in an official letter today.

“Without a single seat given, we understand that PH does not desire an electoral pact with PSM,” PSM said in a statement today.

PSM’s fate now hangs in the balance as it will be having an emergency central committee meeting today followed by a national committee meeting tomorrow to decide if it will be contesting in the national polls.

The party also lamented how the snub from PH came despite assurances from PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli on Friday that certain seats have been allocated for PSM and electoral partner Muda. 

“In the two meetings held between PSM and PH, PSM put forward very minimal requests,” the statement said. 

“We requested that our chairman (Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj) be allowed to stand in Sg Siput as he is the best and most winnable candidate (for the parliamentary seat).” 

The party added that while it had requested for two other federal seats currently occupied by Barisan Nasional (BN) if it was denied Sg Siput “as a worst-case scenario”, as well as  three state seats, it had made known that it was not picky with its seat allocation. 

“We indicated that we would be happy with any parliamentary seat and two state seats. The PH negotiation team said that our issues can only be resolved by the (coalition’s) presidential council, which we finally heard from today with a disappointing outcome.

“We would just like to tell our members and supporters that we have tried. The pact is over, but not the struggle.” 

PSM also noted that it had requested for an electoral pact with PH due to feedback from its members, supporters, and civil society members, with PH being its choice due to it being “the most multiracial and progressive coalition” compared with BN and Perikatan Nasional. 

In the 2018 general election, Jeyakumar lost Sg Siput to PKR’s Kesavan Subramaniam, who secured the constituency with 20,817 votes while Jeyakumar garnered 1,505 votes. 

However, Jeyakumar had previously defended the constituency for two terms while running under the PKR banner, beating out independent candidates and competitors from MIC. 

PH had announced on October 12 that it would consider an electoral pact with PSM and Muda.

Malaysia will head to the ballot boxes on November 19, with early voting set for November 15, and nomination day on November 5. – The Vibes, October 30, 2022