Pakatan won’t submit polls candidate list to MACC

(The Star) – Pakatan Rakyat has no plan to submit its list of election candidates to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for vetting.

PKR vice-president Tian Chua said this was because the coalition felt MACC should not be involved in the general election and its processes.

Tian Chua said Pakatan leaders believed that MACC should be free from politics and should not have a say in who was eligible to be a candidate for any party.

“By getting involved in the election process, MACC had compromised its integrity and this shows that the commission is siding with the Barisan Nasional government,” he said after a PKR lunch and ceramah in Taman Sentosa here yesterday.

Tian Chua, who is also Batu MP, said Pakatan disagreed with the move and found it pointless.

It was reported that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had said that it was a standard practice by Barisan Nasional to submit names of potential election candidates to the MACC to be vetted.

Najib was responding to a suggestion by the MACC’s Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel chairman Datuk Johan Jaafar that all political parties send their list of candidates for vetting by the commission.

On another issue, Tian Chua said Pakatan member parties would not sabotage each other by having three-cornered fights in the coming general election, especially in Johor.

He was confident that there would be no such fights for seats, including the Johor Jaya state seat.

“Three-cornered fights are old news. But I cannot speak for those who might contest as independents,” he said.

When asked about PKR’s candidate list, he said it was being finalised and the announcement was expected to be made before Chinese New Year.