Azmin - Ezam dreamt to be Permatang Pauh MP

Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president Azmin Ali has described its former Youth chief Mohamad Ezam Mohd Noor's offer to be the Barisan Nasional candidate in the Permatang Pauh by-election as "daydreaming".' He said that Mohamad Ezam should wake up to the fact that even the Permatang Pauh Umno division had turned down his offer to stand against PKR stalwart Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He also said Ezam would not cause any trouble for Pakatan Rakyat in ensuring Anwar's victory in the by-election and return to active politics.

It was earlier reported that Permatang Pauh Umno division chief Datuk Abdul Jalil Abdul Majid had stated they preferred a local candidate than an outsider. But Abdul Jalil later denied the report and claimed he did not name Mohamad Ezam in his earlier statement.

Azmin also said Pakatan Rakyat was confident that Anwar would win with a sound majority judging by the current grassroots sentiment.
The support for Anwar was much greater now compared to the 1999 general election when Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail won the Permatang Pauh seat, he added.

"In 1999, only the votes among the Malays were divided between Umno and PKR but now we are getting strong support from the non-Malays as well," he told a press conference at the PKR Youth operation centre for the by-election in Sama Gagah here on Sunday.

Permatang Pauh has 54,448 registered voters of whom 69.4 per cent are Malays while Chinese voters make up about 24.5 per cent and Indians, six per cent.