UMNO instead of MCA is likely to contest the Tanjung Piai parliamentary by-election, party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi hinted today.
He said the party’s Johor chapter and the local Malays want MCA to give up the seat it has traditionally contested in elections because the number of Malay voters in the constituency had increased.
The percentage of Malay voters was 51% in the first election in 2004, when the seat was freshly created but it was now 57%, Zahid said, at the Johor Umno convention in Johor Baru.
“The Tanjung Piai by-eleciton will be a test. Umno and the Malays there want change. But we realise that MCA also wants to hold on to the seat.
“It would be good if MCA could be generous. Umno will not sideline MCA or the Chinese vote as our spirit of brotherhood must be preserved,” Zahid said of Barisan Nasional’s ethnic Chinese component party.
Nominations for the by-election must be filed on November 2 and polling is on November 16.
MCA has contested and won the seat in straight fights in all elections except the last one, when Bersatu’s Dr Md Farid Md Rafik won in a three-cornered fight that included PAS. His death has necessitated the by-election.
According to the figures in last year’s election, Tanjung Piai has 52,986 voters, of which 57% are Malay, 42% Chinese and 1% Indian.
Johor MCA is still eyeing the seat, despite losing Tanjung Piai last year and its general inability to regain the Chinese vote in recent elections.
Local Umno leaders, however, are demanding that their candidate stand in the coming by-election, naming Tanjung Piai Umno division chief Jefridin Atan as their man.
All 88 Umno branch chiefs in the Tanjung Piai division have endorsed Jefridin as their candidate of choice and rejected MCA’s claims to the seat.
Zahid today said the party’s Supreme Council has agreed that Johor Umno chief Hasni Mohamad will be the by-election machinery director.
Jefridin, meanwhile, will be the by-elections operations director.
“We will offer a new deal to Tanjung Piai voters,” Zahid said.
Hasni, who also spoke at the event today, suggested a re-organisation of BN’s seat allocations in Johor as a new strategy, following GE14 last year when BN lost control of its stronghold state for the first time.
He said Malay voters no longer supported the conventional agreement between BN parties to share power, whereby MCA and MIC could field Chinese or Indian candidates in Malay-majority areas.
“We have to understand that the attitudes and demographic of Malay voters in Johor have changed. We used to think that Johor was a safe state (for BN), regardless of the candidate BN fielded. But this has changed,” said Hasni.
In GE14, BN won only 18 out of 38 Malay-majority state seats. It won one out of nine mixed seats and lost in all Chinese-majority seats. – October 5, 2019.
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Comments
He thought that being supportive of UMNO manoeuvres and decisions, Zahid will give him a sympathetic ear.. but got screwed instead. He deserves it
Posted 6 years ago by Kampung Boy · Reply
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Posted 6 years ago by Mo Salleh · Reply
87 cases of corruption related and this ass hole s like his former BOSS..thick skin
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