A woman can also be prime minister, says Dr Wan Azizah

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian opposition alliance Pakatan Harapan (PH) is willing to name a woman prime minister, its president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said on Saturday (Jan 6), adding that the pact's candidate has not been finalised.

"Not yet. We have a lot of qualified candidates, and we look at the factors to win, and one of the candidates is a woman. A woman can become prime minister, (there is) no problem with that, " she said at a press conference after the launch of the PH Women's convention in Kajang on Saturday.

The PKR president was asked if the opposition coalition had agreed on its candidate for prime minister should it win the 14th general election.

The announcement has been delayed after PKR disagreed with a proposal — accepted by PH's three other parties — to name coalition chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad as interim prime minister and Dr Wan Azizah as deputy prime minister.

PKR said it still wanted to discuss the matter at the party level and set three conditions for it to accept Dr Mahathir, who is also Bersatu chairman, as prime minister.

PH's presidential council was to have reached a decision and announce the candidate at its meeting on Thursday night, but failed to do so. Instead, Dr Mahathir said the candidate would only be announced at the PH Convention in Shah Alam on Sunday. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT