Published: Monday April 15, 2013 MYT 11:34:00 AM
Updated: Monday April 15, 2013 MYT 1:50:54 PM

GE13: PSM to decide tonight on its stand, following prickly negotiations with PKR over seats and symbol

By MARTIN VENGADESAN and LEE YEN MUN

PETALING JAYA: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) will hold an emergency national committee meeting Monday night to decide if it will go it alone and use its own symbol in the May 5 national polls, to contest in the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat and state constituencies of Kota Damansara, Semenyih and Jelapang.

It will also decide if it will field a candidate for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat.

Apart from disagreements on PKR's insistence that PSM use the former's logo in its election contests, PSM is also upset that PKR advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has announced a candidate from his party to stand in the Semenyih state seat.

This, said PSM secretary-general S. Arutchelvan, was in spite of PSM agreeing to stand under the PKR logo in Semenyih.

"(PSM central committee member Dr Michael) Jeyakumar was previously informed that he can stand under the PSM logo in Sungai Siput but in our meeting with Anwar on April 13, we were told that if he stands under the PSM logo, then DAP will field a candidate against him.

"We were also told that even if PSM stands in all three seats (Sungai Siput as well as Kota Damansara and Semenyih state seats) under the PKR logo, DAP will not allow PSM to stand in Jelapang.

"We were also told that if we win the seats under the PKR logo, we can immediately use the PSM logo upon winning.

"But again, the same principles were not applied when PSM won two seats in 2008 and now we are given the same deal," Arutchelvan said in a statement Monday.

The meeting Monday night will also discuss a request made by environmental groups and the Cameron Highlands PSM branch to field the party's candidate there, said Arutchelvan.

He added that the meeting with Anwar last week had also concluded that the two parties should try to avoid three-cornered fights as it will have "damaging" effects.

"PSM has always stated that if there was a common Pakatan logo, PSM would be willing to use it.

"This shows that PSM was never fussy on using only its logo but felt that it has the same democratic rights like other parties in Pakatan to use their respective logos," he said.

In the March 2008 elections, PSM won the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in Perak and Kota Damansara state seat in Selangor.

The candidates at that time, namely Dr Jeyakumar and party chairman Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim, had contested under a PKR ticket as PSM was not registered as a political party under the Registrar of Societies until July 2008.

The party had also contested in the state seats of Semenyih but lost the fight in a three-cornered contest.

In his announcement of PKR candidates for Selangor seats Sunday night, Anwar said the PKR candidate for the Kota Damansara state seat had not been finalised as further discussions were necessary.

Meanwhile, expressing disappointment at Pakatan's stand over the logo, Dr Jeyakumar said although his party held a different ideology, it wanted Pakatan to win.

"At our last congress, we decided that we would not ask for any more seats, just that we wanted to contest under our own logo."

He said Pakatan's current stand was unfair.

"I think this is very miserly," he said, adding that PSM was trying its best to avoid three-cornered fights but now it appeared that these were unavoidable.

For more election stories, please visit The Star's GE13 site

More News

News

Published: Monday April 15, 2013 MYT 11:34:00 AMUpdated: Monday April 15, 2013 MYT 1:50:54 PM

GE13: PSM to decide tonight on its stand, following prickly negotiations with PKR over seats and symbol

By MARTIN VENGADESAN and LEE YEN MUN

Published: Monday April 15, 2013 MYT 11:34:00 AM
Updated: Monday April 15, 2013 MYT 1:50:54 PM