THE Pakatan Harapan candidate in the Sg Kandis by-election Mohd Zawawi Ahmad Mughni said the late Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei mentored him when he worked on the latter’s 14th general election campaign.

Zawawi headed Shuhaimi’s operations room, acted as secretary for the election machinery and was the candidate’s representative (wakil calon) when they were campaigning during GE14.

At first, Zawawi said, he wondered why he was entrusted with those roles and even thought he was being abused.

“Finally, I saw the struggle he (Shuhaimi) went through during his final moments. He could not even walk up the stage. 

“I then understood that it was his platform to transfer his knowledge in politics to me,” he said at a ceramah in Shah Alam last night.

He added that he would be able to connect with voters in Sg Kandis because of the experience in managing the state seat in GE14. 

“Please ensure that your vote is right so that we can continue the development planned by the late Shuhaimi,” said Zawawi.

Shuhaimi died of lymphoma cancer on July 2. He Shuhaimi polled 23,998 votes against BN’s Kamaruzzaman Johari (11,518) and PAS’ Yusof Abdullah (7,573). PRM’s Hanafiah Husin mustered only 76 votes out of 50,800.  

Zawawi (PKR) is in a three-way fight against Lokman Noor Adam (BN) and K. Murthy (independent) for the state seat.

Polling is next Saturday. – July 27, 2018.