KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: The Barisan Rakyat coalition comprising PKR, DAP and PAS has picked Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to be the Opposition leader in Parliament for the current session in Dewan Rakyat.

The parties’ leaders — Anwar Ibrahim (PKR de facto leader), Abdul Hadi Awang (PAS president) and Lim Kit Siang (DAP adviser) announced this in a statement Wednesday (19 Mar).

According to the statement, the three leaders, in a meeting last night, agreed that Dr Wan Azizah would be the Opposition leader until Anwar contest and win a parliament seat.

Wan Azizah is Anwar’s wife and has won Anwar’s parliamentary seat of Permatang Pauh in Penang in 1999 when he was in jail. She retained the seat in the 2004 general elections but with only a 590 vote majority. In this elections, she was returned with a thumping majority of 13,388 votes.

Their eldest daughter, Nurul Izzah ,27, won in the Lembah Pantai seat beating incumbent Minister Shahrizat Jalil in an upset victory. She has indicated she would not vacate her seat for her father. (MySinchew)