KUALA LUMPUR: Perikatan Nasional (PN) has yet to decide whether to field a candidate in the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election following the death of its assemblyman, Lee Kee Hiong.
Gerakan president Dominic Lau said the coalition has not discussed the matter yet as a “sign of respect” for DAP’s Lee, who died on Thursday after a battle with cancer.
“Her funeral arrangements are not over yet, so Gerakan believes it is not appropriate to discuss the by-election.
“We must respect Lee Kee Hiong. PN has not held any discussions on this by-election. PN will announce its plans in due course,” he said at a press conference at PGRM Tower in Cheras today.
Lau was asked whether his party would contest in the by-election.
Lee beat Gerakan’s Teoh Kien Hong by a 4,119-vote majority at last year’s Selangor state election.
On Friday, Barisan Nasional chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the coalition would not contest the by-election.
The Umno president said that despite Malay voters making up more than 50% of the electorate there, BN had decided to make way for DAP, which has won the seat for the past three elections.
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Lee, who was 58, first won the seat in 2013 after defeating MCA’s Ooi Hui Wen with a 1,702-vote majority, and defended it in 2018 with a 7,134-vote majority over MCA’s Wong Koon Mun, before winning a third term last year.
