ALOR STAR: Perikatan Nasional (PN) is confident that its candidate for the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election on May 11 would be accepted by the coalition members.
Its election director Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said the candidate selection will be finalised tomorrow in a special meeting involving all component parties within the coalition.
"The meeting is tomorrow, I will go to KL (Kuala Lumpur). I am not concerned about (potential) protests. Such matters (sabotage) happen when the (political) bond is very loose, the 'marriage' doesn't work well.
"It's like wanting to share a pillow, right? But they're not married. Even if married, it's not a good marriage. That's why it's like that (for unity government) while PN has no such problem," he told reporters when met at the Kedah Development Corporation (PKNK) Aidilfitri open house here today.
Sanusi said this in response to reports that Gerakan will field a candidate for the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election on May 11 irrespective of race.
The coalition , however, has also not dismissed Sanusi's previous suggestion that PN stands a better chance of wresting the seat, known as Pakatan Harapan's stronghold by fielding a Malay candidate.
On Wednesday, an online news portal quoted MIC president Tan Sri S.A. Vigneswaran as hinting that the party will not help the unity government campaign for the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election if a BN candidate is not fielded.
Similarly, MCA released a statement on Friday saying it will not campaign for PH in the by-election following a meeting of the party's political development committee.
The Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election is being held following the death of its incumbent, Lee Kee Hiong on March 21.
Lee, 58, who had been the Kuala Kubu Baharu assemblyman from the DAP since 2013, died after battling cancer in the past few years.
She had defeated Gerakan candidate Teoh Kien Hong by a 4,119-vote majority in the state election last November.
The Election Commission has set the by-election for May 11, with candidate nomination day on April 27.
Commenting further, Sanusi said he will maintain his stand in proposing a Malay candidate to represent PN for the by-election.
"I will suggest a Malay candidate. From which party? It doesn't matter, as long as they're representing PN," he said.