Taiping seat dispute settled

Gerakan to contest the seat while PPP takes Grik, according to a source.

PETALING JAYA: The dispute between two Barisan Nasional component parties to contest the Taiping parliamentary seat under the ruling coalition’s banner, has been settled amicably.

Sources claim the two parties – Gerakan and PPP – have settled their differences on who should contest the seat, which sees the highest rainfall in the country.

“It has been agreed upon. Gerakan will contest the seat while PPP would take the Grik parliamentary seat, which is now contested by Umno. Umno is expected to give way to PPP to contest Grik,” a party source told FMT when contacted.

Tussle for the seat witnessed a war of words between leaders of the two parties in their quest to contest the Taiping parliamentary constituency, which has some 70,000 registered voters.

Gerakan claims that the constituency had been its traditional stronghold since 1974 and that it was only loaned to PPP in both the 2004 and 2008 general elections on the insistence of the then Prime Minister and BN chief Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

PPP president M Kayveas won the seat at the 2004 general election with a 2,172-vote majority but lost to DAP’s Nga Kor Ming at the 2008 general election with a thumping 11,298-vote difference.

While the PPP had insisted the seat be allocated to the party under the BN banner, Gerakan had other plans.

Gerakan had contended that the seat was given to PPP on the condition that it would be returned at the 2008 general election. But this was not to be as the BN leadership then decided that PPP should re-contest the seat under the coalition’s banner.

Eyeing Kuala Lumpur

The BN compensated Gerakan for the loss of the Taiping seat with the Bukit Gantang parliamentary constituency in 2004 and gave the party the Grik parliamentary seat in 2008. Both the “compensated” seats were originally allocated to Umno.

Gerakan Wanita chief Tan Lian Hoe is expected to be named as BN candidate to contest the seat at the upcoming general election.

Kayveas, meanwhile, could be the BN candidate for the Grik parliamentary constituency.

PPP, said to be the smallest BN component in the peninsula, is also said to be eyeing a parliamentary seat in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.

The party has even picked its candidate to contest the seat in the federal capital.

There are 10 parliamentary seats in the Federal Territory with majority of them being held by the opposition.

Sources say Kuala Lumpur PPP chief and party national information chief A Chandrakumanan would be the candidate if the party is given the seat by the BN leadership.

Apart from the two parliamentary constituencies, the source said, PPP also stands to get two state seats, in Malacca and Perak respectively.

“They party has identified candidates for these two seats… it has already sent its list of candidates to the BN,” said the source.