UMNO will discuss with its partners in Barisan Nasional who will contest the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat by-election following the death of the MP Dr Md Farid Md Rafik.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said this in answer to reporters at the launch of the Sabah Umno convention at the state party headquarters today.

He declined to say more.

Tanjung Piai MP Farid Md Rafik who was deputy to the de facto minister of national unity and social wellbeing died of a heart attack this morning in the Pontian Hospital.

The Election Commission is expected to declare the federal seat vacant soon. 

Tg Piai is traditionally an MCA seat. It is unclear whether Umno or its new electoral ally PAS will seek to change that.

In the last general election, Farid beat MCA’s Wee Jeck Seng, who had held the Johor parliamentary seat for two terms, by a narrow 524 votes. 

The other contender for the seat, Nordin Othman of PAS, polled 2,962 votes.

The combined votes of the PAS and BN candidates would have seen to the defeat of the Pakatan Harapan candidate.

The constituency has 53,528 voters, 57% of which are Malay, 42% Chinese and the remainder Indian.

In the Cameron Highlands by-election earlier this year, Barisan Nasional component MIC was compelled to make way for an Orang Asli candidate as the BN leadership felt a candidate from the community stood a better chance  of winning the seat – which turned out to be correct.

Umno and PAS had worked together unofficially to drum up support for the candidate , setting the stage for future cooperation in state by-elections in Semenyih in Selangor and Rantau in Negri Sembilan.

Last weekend Umno and the Islamist party signed a charter to cooperate for the unity of the Muslim community.

Zahid today cited health reasons for the absence of former Sabah Umno liaison chief Musa Aman at the convention.  

He expressed gratitude to Musa for his commitment to Umno. 

Musa, who is the Sibuga assemblyman, holds Umno’s only seat in the state assembly. – September 21, 2019.