According to the purported list of candidates, caretaker mentri besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari is expected to defend his Sungai Tua state seat. -LOW LAY PHON/The Star
KLANG: A purported Selangor PKR candidate list is floating around and indicating that many newbies will be contesting this time around.
Going by the list, 12 out of the 20 candidates are all new names.
Seven are incumbents and one candidate, Juwairiya Zulkifli, has been moved from her previous Bukit Malawati constituency to Bukit Antarabangsa.
If this is true and if the Bukit Antarabangsa incumbent defends his seat, Juwairiya will be facing off with former Selangor mentri besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Contrary to previous speculation that Kota Damansara will be given to Umno, the constituency appears to remain in the PKR list with one Mustafa Kamil Ayub slotted to contest there.
Conspicuously missing from the list is the Port Klang constituency, which could have been handed over to Umno for its Klang division chief Zainuri Zainal to contest.
Some of the changes in candidates are in constituencies where the incumbent has moved on to become an MP such as Batu Tiga where incumbent Rodziah Ismail won the Ampang parliamentary seat in the 15th General Election (GE15).
According to the list, caretaker Selangor mentri besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari will be defending his Sungai Tua seat.
Also missing from the list is a exco member and incumbent Kajang assemblyman Lee Hoy Sian.
As the earlier speculation, Bukit Lanjan incumbent Elizabeth Wong is being replaced by Loh Ker Chean.
Party sources say Wong had indicated that she did not want to contest in the upcoming state election.
However, the purported list must be taken with a pinch of salt as last-minute bartering is known to happen right until just before the official announcement is made.
The possibility that the list which is being floated around is a decoy, to throw people off the scent, cannot also be completely dismissed.
