PETALING JAYA: The guessing game is over. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is set to contest the Port Dickson parliamentary seat.
In an announcement, the seat's incumbent Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah has agreed to resign as MP.
Speaking at a press conference at PKR's headquarters, here, today, Danyal said he was prepared to give way for the party's incoming president to contest in the Negri Sembilan seat.
"I am prepared to vacate the Port Dickson parliamentary seat in order to enable Anwar to contest in a by-election there.
"Anwar agreed and is prepared to contest in Port Dickson. I am confident Anwar will win and become a member of Parliament, and Malaysia's eighth Prime Minister.
"I have also handed in my resignation letter as Port Dickson MP effective immediately to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker," he said.
Also present at the press conference were PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and vice president Dr A Xavier Jayakumar.
Many aspects were considered before coming to the decision to vacate the Port Dickson seat, according to Saifuddin.
"We never asked members of Parliament to empty their seats to make way for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim," he said.
Danyal, 68 defeated Barisan Nasional's (BN) V Mogan and PAS' Mahfuz Roslan in the recent General Election (GE14) by garnering 36,225 votes.
He is a former senior officer in the Royal Malaysian Navy and is originally from Batu Kurau, Perak.
The last time Anwar, 71, contested in an election was in 2013 for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat.
He defeated BN's MAzlan Ismail and independent candidate Abdullah Zawawi Samsudin with an 11,721-vote majority.
However, he was disqualified from holding the seat in 2015 after a Federal Court decision saw him sentenced to a five-year jail term for sodomy.
He was given a royal pardon on May 16 this year, seven days after Pakatan Harapan (PH) formed the federal government after defeating BN in GE14. — Reports by
Mohd Anwar Patho Rohman, Syed Umar Ariff, Fahmy Azril Rosli dan Esther Landau