PETALING JAYA: Former PKR vice-president Tian Chua, a staunch supporter of Anwar Ibrahim after he was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998, has been officially booted from the party for contesting the Batu parliamentary seat as an independent candidate in the 15th general election (GE15).
The party’s disciplinary committee chairman Tan Yee Kew confirmed this, saying that the decision was made during the party’s central leadership committee meeting last night, according to a report in Malaysiakini.
He was sacked together with four other party members.
“Yes, yesterday the supreme council had a meeting and we decided to sack him,” she told the news portal when contacted today.
The others were Puah Chee Haur (Parit Buntar), Ahmad Tarmizi Ghazali (Gopeng), M Mohganan (Taiping) and Nur Khairunisa Abdullah (Sadong Jaya).
“All were sacked for standing as independents or on the tickets of other parties. Those who will be sacked for other disciplinary issues will be announced later.”
Both Puah and Tarmizi contested under the Warisan ticket in Keranji and Chenderiang respectively.
Mohganan contested in Taping as an independent candidate.
Nur Khairunisa was sacked because she contested in Sadong Jaya during the 2021 Sarawak state elections.
After the GE15 nominations on Nov 4, Anwar, who is party president, said Tian Chua would be sacked for contesting as an independent candidate.
The former two-term Batu MP, who clashed with P Prabakaran and eight other candidates, lost his deposit by obtaining only 4,603 votes.
FMT has reached out to Tian Chua for comment.