GE15: Ezam to battle Dr Mahathir under PKR's ticket?

ALOR SETAR - A supposed complete list of Pakatan Harapan (PH) national poll candidate line-up for the state of Kedah has gone viral; less than 48 hours before the coalition’s official announcement is set to take place.

What made it even more controversial was the added speculation claiming that estranged party leader Datuk Ezam Mohd Nor was said to be one of the “parachute candidates” fielded to compete in perhaps one of the hottest seats in the rice bowl state -- Langkawi.

Ezam, who is former political secretary of PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, was touted to be the most suitable candidate to contest against incumbent Langkawi MP Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who will be defending his seat in the 15th General Election (GE15).

The talk of the former PKR youth chief (from 1999 - 2000) candidacy had somewhat of a gravitas as Ezam had on October 14 revealed his “readiness” to contest in Langkawi as either independently or under the banner of any willing parties.

For the record, Ezam is currently the chairman of a mosquito party called ‘Pertubuhan Perubahan Rakyat Malaysia’ (Gerak).

Also according to the viral line-up list, PKR will contest in nine seats whereas the remaining six seats will be given to Amanah; as for DAP it is still anybody’s guess if the party will get to compete in any of the 15 parliamentary seats in Kedah.

Talk has it that three big names who are incumbent MPs from the party will be defending their respective seats so as to ensure victory for the party.

These incumbent MPs are Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (Kulim Bandar Baharu); Dr Azman Ismail (Kuala Kedah) and Nor Azrina Surip (Merbok).

The list also longstanding party members who will be making their first electoral debut, namely; Kedah PKR vice-chairman Simon Ooi Tze Min (Alor Setar), Datuk Muhd Zaiemuddin Osman (Baling) and M Karupaya (Padang Serai).

Two young candidates also made it into the viral list, they were: Kedah PKR youth chief Dr Taufik Johari (Sungai Petani) and Kedah PKR information chief Aizuddin Ariffin (Kubang Pasu).

While the veracity of the list has yet to be confirmed, sources said that half of the names in the list were in the finalised list of candidates with only some of it being inaccurate.