THREE-CORNERED fight or not, voters in the Gombak parliamentary seat said their vote will remain with Selangor caretaker menteri besar Mohamed Azmin Ali.

Those met by Malaysia Decides at Pakatan Harapan’s last ceramah in Klang Valley said they had no reason to change their member of parliament, as Azmin has had a good track record of serving his constituents.

Most also said a vote for Azmin will reflect their anger towards the ruling Barisan Nasional government.

“People want change (in the federal government). No doubt, Azmin can retain the seat because people know what’s going on,” Gombak voter Alex said.

Alex, who has been living in Hulu Kelang for 30 years, said PAS’ departure from the opposition coalition would not cause any great impact on the votes.

“Although most of the voters here are Malays, they would not vote for PAS because they have confidence in Azmin,” said the 56-year-old writer.

Azmin will be facing Khairil Nizam Khirudin (PAS) and Abd Rahim Kamarudin (BN) these elections.

The PKR deputy president first won the seat in 2008, defeating BN’s Said Anuar Said Ahmad by 6,867 votes.

He then defended the seat in 2013 polls with a reduced majority of 4,734 votes. Azmin is now looking to retain the seat of 141,112 voters for a third term.

Omar Salim, 53, said he could see the difference between Azmin’s work in the constituency, compared with a BN lawmaker before 2008.

“He always helps people regardless of their political inclination and people can see that.

“Even with the re-delineation exercise, I still think Azmin can win because I have met some PAS supporters who pledged to vote him.”

Another local who only wanted to be named as Harun, 70, said Azmin will retain the seat because he had done a lot for the locals such as providing free water supply.

“We would not have gotten it if it was not for Azmin. He solves the problems faced by the people one at a time,” he said.

Azmin said the Malay voters will not swing their votes to PAS because they know it only contested the seat to split the opposition vote.

“We know that victory is not the end goal for PAS. Therefore, they would not affect the votes as much as they thought they could.” – May 7, 2018.