PSM ends electoral pact with PH after getting no seats

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) yesterday called off its electoral pact with Pakatan Harapan (PH) after its request to contest Sungai Siput in the 15th general election (GE15) was rejected.

PSM deputy chairman S Arutchelvan said PH informed the party through an official letter dated Oct 30 that its request for an electoral pact had been rejected.

In the two meetings held between the party and PH, he said PSM had requested that its chairman Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, a former two-term Sungai Siput MP, be allowed to stand in that parliamentary constituency.

"Without a single seat given, we understand that PH does not desire an electoral pact with PSM. We regret the matter being informed to us so late in spite of (PKR deputy president) Rafizi Ramli’s statement on Friday that certain seats were allocated for PSM and the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda)," he said in a statement.

Arutchelvan also said PSM wanted to contest two other alternate non-incumbent Parliament seats held by Barisan Nasional (BN) if their Sungai Siput seat request was turned down, as a worst-case scenario, and to contest three non-incumbent state seats held by BN.

He said PSM would hold an emergency central committee meeting as well as a national committee meeting to decide if the party would be contesting GE15.