PKR Vice-President Dr Xavier Jeyakumar said the party had fielded candidates in 40 seats and only two were problematic.
“There are things that we don’t know or can’t predict. Even until the last moment, we were under the impression all our candidates would be accepted.
“This has nothing to with our management as we have managed very well. And most of the candidates have appeared on nomination day,” he told a press conference at the party’s operation centre here today.
PKR had originally planned to contest in 40 seats. However, it ended up with 38 when its Pantai Damai candidate, Morni Samsudin, was rejected because of being a bankrupt.
The party also lost the Bukit Sari seat to Barisan Nasional, as its candidate, Jamal Ibrahim, did not turn up at the nomination centre.
When asked if any background check was conducted on its candidates, Xavier replied: “It was done. (For Morni) there is an insolvency letter showing that he’s not a bankrupt.
“But the Election Commission (EC) search showed he was. So it’s now up to the candidate himself to check and follow up with EC officials.
“As far as Bukit Sari is concerned, it is sad that the candidate chosen by PKR did not appear even though we had paid the deposit and the deposit slips had been given 24 hours before nomination.”
He added that the party would carry out an internal investigation over the matter after the election this May 7.
As to PKR’s refusal to comply with an agreement it signed with DAP to contest only in certain areas to avoid any dispute over overlapping claims, Xavier said the party would like to focus instead on defeating BN.
“Our battle is against BN and nobody else. We will stop talking about DAP and we have asked our candidates to concentrate all their resources on BN.
“We are not against DAP, we are against BN. We must focus on the campaign and on how we can win the seats.”
PKR, at the beginning of the press conference, announced its manifesto containing five election promises.
This included the promise to reduce the cost of living by abolishing the Goods and Services Tax, to bring further development to the state, and to restore Sarawak’s autonomy as per the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.