PKR meets today to discuss PM candidate and 9 news from yesterday

KINI ROUNDUP | Here are key headlines you may have missed yesterday, in brief.

1. PKR will hold a meeting this morning to discuss its position on the Pakatan Harapan prime minister candidate, in response to DAP’s public disclosure of the coalition’s internal deliberations on the matter.

2. PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said Harapan and its allies never proposed former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to be the next prime minister, but said Mahathir had instead nominated himself to serve 12 more months in office.

3. PKR president Anwar Ibrahim’s cryptic Twitter post about pruning his garden had set off speculation on whether there is a hidden meaning in his statement, while analysts weighed in on whether the power struggle between Mahathir and Anwar would cause the Harapan coalition to fall apart.

4. Pekan Umno committee member Mohd Sharim Md Zain will contest the Chini by-election under the BN ticket, against rogue Bersatu member Zainul Hisham Tengku Hussin, who will be contesting as an independent candidate.

5. Election Commission chairperson Azhar Harun defended campaign restrictions put in place in the Chini by-election to curb the spread of Covid-19, saying that the “new norms” in wake of the pandemic affects all aspects of life, including democratic processes.

6. Dozens of tourists and business travellers from India have been stranded in immigration detention centres after their visas have lapsed and their flights home have been cancelled, including one who reportedly died of Covid-19 in detention. The Immigration Department said a different man had died.

7. Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said the government is in the early stages of a scheme that would allow undocumented immigrants at detention facilities to seek legal employment in Malaysia.

8. Sources claimed that the government could send 300 Rohingya asylum seekers back to the sea after fixing their damaged boat and supplying them with food and water.

9. A source in BN said newly-appointed senator Rais Yatim is set to become the next Dewan Negara president after the term of the incumbent, SA Vigneswaran, expires on Monday, June 22.

10. A suspected 19-year old bank robber has been shot dead by a security guard in Kota Tinggi, Johor, after taking a customer hostage during the robbery.