PERMATANG PAUH: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) will field its Penang deputy chairman Mansor Othman in the Penanti by-election on May 31, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said last night.

Mansor would be Penang’s new deputy chief minister 1 if he won the contest, the PKR de facto chief told more than 500 party supporters at Yayasan Aman in Penanti. This had been discussed with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, he added.

To everyone’s surprise, Anwar was accompanied by former DCM1 and Penanti assemblyman Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin, whose appearance at the gathering dispelled all talk of him leaving PKR.

Also present were Lim, PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, vice-president Datuk Azmin Ali and Bukit Selambau assemblyman S Manikumar.

In his speech, Anwar said Mansor’s candidacy in Penanti was endorsed by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leadership. Mansor was chosen due to his seniority in PKR, experience and educational background, he added.

The Yale-educated Mansor, 59, was an associate professor at USM before serving as Anwar’s political secretary. He was appointed Penang PKR chairman in 1998 and unsucessfully contested under the PKR banner in 1999, 2004 and 2008 general elections.

On Fairus, Anwar said the former DCM1 felt he should take a step back from politics even though he had been cleared of corruption by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC).

Penanti, which has 15,421 voters, is in Anwar’s Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency. The state seat had been Barisan Nasional’s until PKR wrested it in 1999 with a 1,983-vote majority. It reverted to BN in 2004, when Umno’s Datuk Abdul Jalil Abdul Majid defeated Anwar’s private secretary Anuar Shaari by 667 votes. Jalil polled 6,195 votes to Anuar’s 5,528 votes.

In 2008, Fairus ousted Jalil by a 2,219-vote majority. Fairus secured 7,346 votes to Jalil’s 5,127 votes.