Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM: Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim denied that he was the sole candidate suggested for the top post in the state after the 2008 and 2013 general elections.
Abdul Khalid claimed that there were also instances where separate proposals were forwarded to the Selangor palace for the post, besides his own name.
“There were more than one name being submitted from time to time to the palace (for the menteri besar post),” he told a press conference after chairing the weekly state executive council meeting at the State Secretariat building, here, yesterday.
Abdul Khalid said this when asked to respond to claims by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and DAP that only one name was submitted to the Selangor Sultan, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah after the 2008 and 2013 general elections for the menteri besar post.
Both parties insist on only nominating PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and have claimed that by convention only one name had been submitted in the past.
Selangor PAS commissioner Iskandar Abdul Samad at the same press conference, said his party would be meeting party secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali tonight before commenting on the party’s stand on the issue of menteri besar. Prior to this, the Pakatan Rakyat presidential council had announced Dr Wan Azizah as the sole candidate to replace Abdul Khalid, who was sacked from PKR for defying party orders to step down.
The menteri besar yesterday tendered his resignation to the Selangor Sultan, but the latter chose to defer accepting it until a new menteri besar is named.
The Sultan also asked PAS, PKR and DAP to submit more than two names each for the menteri besar post to the palace for consideration. — Bernama