Pakatan denies Ku Li will be its PM candidate

Pakatan Rakyat today denied rumours that Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah will become its candidate for prime minister if it captures federal power in the next general election.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim described the rumours as the work of Umno-owned media.

“I have never heard anything about this. I don’t know if Kit Siang has heard anything about it.

“I think this is the work of Umno newspapers,” he told journalists during the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) Chinese New Year open house today.

Adding on, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang concurred with Anwar, stating: "I think these are all rumours.".

It was reported yesterday that independent Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Hashim had claimed that DAP and PAS had agreed for Tengku Razaleigh, more popularly known as Ku Li, to become its prime minister candidate as he was supposedly a better choice.

Pakatan Rakyat, particularly PKR and DAP, has in the past constantly touted Anwar as its prime minister candidate.

However, voices particularly from the conservative segments of PAS had urged that their president Abdul Hadi Awang be made prime minister if Pakatan Rakyat takes over Putrajaya.

There had also been rumours that PAS favours Ku Li as an alternative to Anwar for prime minister.

Ku Li, an Umno veteran and maverick, was in 2010 rumoured to be among those preparing to defect to Pakatan Rakyat.

Even though Ku Li has been critical of his own party, he had denied the claims of defection, describing it as a “tall tale”.