Anwar to focus on campaign, not bothered by Mohd Saiful

PORT DICKSON: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged PKR supporters not to resort to personal attacks during the campaign period for the Port Dickson by-election.
The PKR's president-elect was referring to an incident where his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who is contesting as an independent candidate in the Port Dickson polls, was loudly booed during the nomination process earlier today.
The boos rang out each time his name was mentioned by the returning officer Khairy Maamor at the nomination centre in the Port Dickson Municipal Council hall.
"I will advise them of course but then you have to consider his malicious efforts in the past.
"It is easier to say that, for me to forgive and move on, but also to appreciate the concerns of many who were deeply hurt and suffered in the process," Anwar said during a press conference after the nomination process.
Anwar also added that he is not interested in Saiful's campaign for the Port Dickson by-election.
He said he would instead be concentrating on his own campaign to win the parliamentary seat.
"It's up to Saiful (to use the sodomy issue as campaign material). I don't want to interfere. I am concentrating on my task, which is to strengthen the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and to ensure we fulfil our commitments to Port Dickson voters and people," he said.
Earlier, the two candidates shared an awkward moment when they briefly shook hands before entering the nomination centre.
In 2008, Saiful accused Anwar of sodomising him in an apartment in Damansara. Following a series of court trials and appeals, Anwar was found guilty by the Federal Court and subsequently sentenced to a five-year jail term in February 2015.
A week after Pakatan Harapan's victory in the May 9 polls, he was released after being granted a royal pardon.