KUALA LUMPUR : Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has stated that former Sungai Buloh member of parliament R. Sivarasa was not picked to defend the seat due to health reasons.
He said the health factor had to be taken into consideration even though there were those who had wanted Sivarasa to continue serving the constituency.
"Sivarasa is my lawyer, a good friend of mine, and he has served the constituency for three terms, but his health, we looked (at it) and there were issues, so when he went to campaign, it could be seen that he was unwell, and this would not augur well.
"So, I thought at length about this and we can put forth someone capable who could defeat Khairy Jamaluddin (the Barisan Nasional candidate)," said Anwar as reported by a news portal earlier today.
For the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15), PH have gone with PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) deputy Information chief Datuk R. Ramanan as their candidate of choice for the Sungai Buloh constituency.
Earlier it was reported that PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli had admitted that both he and the party's candidate committee had suggested Sivarasa to stand for reelection in Sungai Buloh, but Anwar had a different view altogether on the matter.
Sivarasa has been serving the constituency of Sungai Buloh since 2008. During the 14th General Election (GE14), Sivarasa polled 43,631 votes to defeat Pas candidate Nuridah Mohd Salleh who obtained 16,977 votes, Barisan Nasional's A. Prakash Rao, who polled 16,681 votes, and Parti Sosialis Malaysia's Zainurizzaman Moharam (642 votes).