PSM hopes to reclaim Sungai Siput, its president to contest

PETALING JAYA - Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) wishes to take over Sungai Siput parliamentary seat by putting its president Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj to contest during the 15th General Election (GE15).

The party's deputy president S. Arutchelvan said this was because the party believed that Jeyakumar was the right candidate to contest for the seat and would brought the matter for discussion with Pakatan Harapan's (PH) presidential council.

"We will be discussing PH's presidential council on the matter," he said when met by reporters at PKR headquarter here, today.

Commenting further, he said in 2004, PSM was the first party to claim the seat and in order to reclaim the seat, PSM would be putting a 'strong' candidate to contest.

He also said that there was a high possibility for Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president Tan Sri S. A. Vigneswaran to contest in Sungai Siput because banners with pictures of him had been put up in the area.

"I was in Sungai Siput yesterday (Oct 22) and there is a high chance of MIC president to contest in area because all the banners are about him.

"I think to take over the seat we need to put forward a credible candidate such as Jeyakumar to ignite the hopes of the people not only in the area but also nationwide," he said.

He added that PSM was not asking for many seats but hoped to compete in a non-incumbent seats like Sungai Siput although it was not an easy seat to win.

"We are putting Sungai Siput as one of the important discussion and I think for the electoral pact, we have to look into that, but we are not asking for many seats.

"Out of all seats, we are asking for non-incumbent seats and it is not an easy seat but a difficult one," he further added.

He urged that the matter be decided as soon as possible as they were running out of time.

Jeyakumar was also the MP for Sungai Siput since 2008 until 2018 but lost to PKR's S Kesavan during GE14.