PBM information chief Zakaria Abdul Hamid told FMT that Santhara, the former Segamat MP, had made the last-minute decision citing “personal reasons”.

“We couldn’t get another candidate for the seat as it was very last-minute.

“We are still unsure what the personal reason is. It could be family-related or something else,” he said.

“We respect his decision and will get a detailed explanation from him after the polls. In the meantime, our focus is on the election.”

When contacted by FMT, Santhara said he had informed his supporters of his decision not to defend the seat a few days ago.

“Basically, I am staying out because I don’t want the votes to split.

“Let the public decide clearly who they want to choose as their elected representative. Let them then compare the service record of the new MP and mine.

“I also wanted a cooling-off period, which is very important,” he said.

Checks on the Election Commission’s (EC) website found that four candidates were in the running for the Segamat seat, with Santhara excluded from the list.

The EC listed Pejuang’s Syed Hairoul Faizey Syed Ali, Barisan Nasional’s M Ramasamy, Pakatan Harapan’s R Yuneswaran and Perikatan Nasional’s P Poobalan as candidates.

On Wednesday, PBM announced that it would field Santhara to defend his Segamat seat. He won the seat on a PH ticket in the 2018 general election.

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