Yesterday, he was announced as the party’s candidate for the Sungai Kandis by-election in August.
Zawawi, who is the principal of the Maahad Tahfiz Al Fateh in Jalan Kebun, will be defending the state seat won by PKR since the 12th general election in 2008.
The 47-year-old holds a masters of education (guidance and counselling) from Universiti Malaya and a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language from Al Azhar University in Egypt.
He is married to Hazlina Abdul Razak, 48. They have five sons between seven and 23 years of age.
Zawawi had been actively involved in Anwar’s reform movement since 1998 although he only formally joined PKR in 2012. He was the secretary of the Sungai Kandis election machinery for the party’s candidate in the May 9 polls, the late Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei.
At the division level, Zawawi who is known as Ustaz Zawawi to his friends, is actively involved in ceramah programmes and training.
The PKR Religious Understanding and Consolidation Bureau (Bippa) secretary received the Selangor Distinguished Teacher (Selangor Islamic Religious Department) award in 2003. He was formerly the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) National Consultative Council deputy chairman and a member of the Selangor Islamic Religious Council Missionary Body from 2008 until 2012.
Internationally, he served as a coordinator of the Shariah Implementation Forum in Aceh, Indonesia, in 2017 and was the coordinator of the Bippa Sacrifice Worship Mission to Cambodia in 2017.
Zawawi speaks Malay, English, Arabic and Javanese.
The Sungai Kandis state by-election was called following Mat Shuhaimi’s death on July 2. Nomination is this Saturday and polling on Aug 4.
In GE13, Mat Shuhaimi, who was formerly the political secretary to former Selangor menteri besar Mohamed Azmin Ali, retained the state seat for a third term after defeating Barisan Nasional, PAS and PRM candidates with 23,998 votes.
The Sungai Kandis constituency has 51,230 registered voters consisting of 51,217 ordinary voters and 13 overseas voters.