At a press conference, the PKR deputy president said this would help the party widen its talent pool.
“Those who are interested can visit at http://www.calonkeadilan.org/ and register themselves. The website was launched today and will be open for registration until next Thursday.
“However, if Parliament is dissolved tomorrow or next week, the party will close entries earlier,” he said, adding that PKR was expecting to receive 10,000 registrations from across the country.
Calling the move a “political innovation”, the former Pandan MP said it would also serve as a “fair” platform for Malaysians to try their hand at politics.
He added that it would also help reform the political culture of “brown-nosing” and “apple-polishing”.
“This will also remove the ‘warlords’ factor. In the past 60 years (under Barisan Nasional’s reign), a person will become a party candidate, and eventually a senior minister, simply by currying the favour of top leaders.
“It did not matter what their talents were. Their track record with the public did not matter either,” he said.
“It is a risky move but we are trying to convince voters that the party intends to shortlist only the best candidates for GE15.”
Rafizi said this move was made based on a study of voting patterns and shifting sentiments over the last two years, conducted by the party’s research arm.
He added that all nominees will be judged on four criteria: their contributions to the community, social media influence, status in society, and standing in the party.
“From there, a top five will be chosen manually for each constituency. These five candidates will then be decided by PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and myself as PKR’s election director,” he said.
Rafizi also said the party has launched a volunteer database at www.sukarelawankeadilan.org to prepare for the upcoming monsoon season.
He said many volunteers would usually want to help victims of floods but did not know where to sign up.
“This initiative involving the database of volunteers will be led by Penang PKR Youth chief Fahmi Zainol.”
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