They made the plea in a memorandum handed to PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
“We, as members of PKR Selayang division and of 38 NGOs, pledge to continue our support for William Leong as the candidate for the Selayang seat in GE14.
“Our support is based on the fact that he is an MP approachable to the people, who solves problems without caring about factors like race, religion and political ideology, and is strongly backed by voters who gave him a majority of 17,958 votes in the last election.
“We believe there is no other more suitable candidate to be fielded by PKR in view of his performance during the two terms he served in the constituency,” the group’s spokesman, Saharuddin Abu Bakar, told reporters after submitting the memorandum to Wan Azizah at the PKR headquarters.
Last August, Leong resigned from the PKR political bureau and announced that he would not seek re-election for the seat in protest against the party’s decision to continue negotiating with PAS to avoid three-cornered fights in GE14.
He said efforts to talk to PAS would be seen by the public as “begging”, which would have a negative impact on PKR.
Saharuddin said the memorandum was not an attempt to pre-empt a supposed move by the party to field another candidate to replace Leong in Selayang.
“We have not heard of another candidate being considered for Selayang but we wish to make known that we want YB William to be retained.
“We have held a few heart-to-heart discussions with him since his announcement last August, and we are confident he will be nominated again.
“However, it is up to the leaders to decide who to field in Selayang. As loyal party members, we will support whoever the party nominates, but the grassroots want YB William to be retained,” he said.
Leong polled 52,287 votes in GE13 to beat Barisan Nasional’s Donald Lim Siang Chai by 17,958 votes in a three-cornered contest.