WARISAN would not be contesting in Peninsular Malaysia if it were not confident of winning several seats in the coming general election, the party’s peninsula chief coordinator Dr Rajiv Bhanot said.

He told The Malaysian Insight the party is looking to contest in all parliamentary seats in the peninsula, except for Pahang and Terengganu.

“The party is not afraid of going down a seemingly difficult path,” Rajiv said.

“We are confident in the areas we have decided to contest and the candidates that will soon be announced are winnable.”

Warisan president Mohd Shafie Apdal had said the party will contest in seven states in the peninsula.

He said they have identified parliamentary seats in Johor, Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan, Selangor and Perak they will potentially contest, but the number has not yet been finalised.

As for not contesting in Terengganu and Pahang, Rajiv said they are strongholds and it would be a waste of their machinery.

“We have evaluated the strengths we have and going into GE15 the time frame is short. So, we are being selective in the areas we are looking at.”

Warisan is a Sabah-based party that was set up in 2016 by Shafie.

The former Sabah chief minister then decided to expand the party nationally in December last year.

The party won nine seats in the 2018 general election and was left with six seats in Sabah and one in Labuan when parliament was dissolved on October 10.

Rajiv said it would not be easy to contest on their own as they are not part of any coalition and were relatively new kids on the block.

“If we are going to contest, then we are going in with a mindset to win. We have to be pragmatic in selecting the seats we are going to contest.

“But, we have Shafie who is a national leader. The voters are also not going to blindly vote based on political parties.

“Voters this time around want to know the candidates, the leaders and individuals who will be contesting.”

He said that currently they have 100,000 registered members in Peninsular Malaysia.

On candidate selection, Rajiv said they are all locals.

“There are young individuals and professionals. Doctors, lawyers, professors and some who have political experience.

“We have identified the candidates. Shafie is evaluating the candidate list and an announcement will be made in due time. Hopefully by the end of the week.”

He also said the party has appointed leaders with experience in all states they are contesting and they come from different racial backgrounds.

On multi-cornered fights, Rajiv said their selection of candidates is important.

“We need to pick winnable candidates. There is no point fielding someone just for the sake of doing so. So, we will field candidates that we think are winnable in the eyes of the party.

“That’s one of the criteria the voters will evaluate when they go to the ballot boxes.” – October 19, 2022.