UNDER the campaign tagline “Jerlun for Jerlun”, Barisan Nasional machinery is confident of defending the parliamentary seat, dismissing challenges from former MP and Kedah menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir, whom the party describes as an “outsider”.

Siputeh Information chief Ahmad Zailani Mat Zin, 51, said the party machinery would step up its game in efforts to stop Mukhriz from winning the seat for the second time.

“We never really liked him because he is not from Jerlun. Jerlun for Jerlun and all our candidates for parliament and state seats are from Jerlun.

“Our candidates know Jerlun people and their principles,” he told Malaysia Decides.

Mukhriz, who is now the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the seat that he won in the 2008 general election, is looking to return to Parliament by defeating incumbent Othman Aziz and Jerlus PAS chief Abd Ghani Ahmad.

Othman, 59, is Mukhriz’s successor to the parliamentary seat, winning it  by a majority of 3,270 votes against PAS’ Ismail Salleh in the last general election in 2013.

Umno member Mohd Zaini Said, 55, meanwhile, recalled the days when the seat was represented by Mukhriz, saying the youngest son of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who is now leading the opposition pact, was never really on the ground to understand locals’ issues.

“We believe we can retain the seat with an increased majority, because Jerlun BN has done a lot of grassroots work and we have been doing it for a few years,” he said.

He said Mukhriz lost a lot of support because of his alliance with DAP, a Chinese-majority party feared by the Malays.


“Older people used to respect him, but now they see he has joined forces with DAP, so those who used to admire him have shifted their support back to Umno.”

Jerlun has 54,132 voters, about 61% of which are aged above 40.

Branch youth chief Ghazali Ibrahim said Mukhriz was not an influential figure among local villagers due to his lack of engagement when he was MP.

“He didn’t even live here when he was our representative.He is an outsider, unlike our three candidates,” he said referring to Othman and two other candidates for state seats under Jerlun, incumbent Ahmad Azhar Abdullah (Kota Siputeh) and Abu Hasan Sarif (Ayer Hitam). – April 28, 2018.