Tee Keat, Yen Yen, Ping Sieu axed from GE13

Ong (left) had been expected to get an independent berth from BN chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak.—File picKUALA LUMPUR, April 15 ― Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and MCA vice-presidents Gan Ping Sieu and Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen have been dropped from contesting Election 2013, party president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek announced today.

Ong and Ng are the incumbent MPs for Pandan and Raub respectively, while Gan had been appointed as senator after losing his Mengkibol state seat in Johor.

“There are 19 (51.3 per cent) new faces for parliamentary seats and 49 (54.4 per cent) new faces for state seats,” said Dr Chua in a statement today after releasing the list of MCA candidates for Election 2013.

“The MCA will be contesting 37 parliamentary and 90 state seats in the coming 13th general election,” he added.

Dr Chua deposed Ong as MCA president in 2010, but the latter remains popular with independent Chinese voters and significant numbers within the Barisan Nasional (BN) party.

Ong insisted last February that he would contest as a BN candidate in Pandan ― going up against PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli ― after Dr Chua dropped him from the party’s candidate list for the 13th general election.

BN had previously fielded an independent candidate ― Billy Abit Joo in the Hulu Rajang parliamentary seat ― under its banner during the 1995 federal polls.

Ng, who is interim tourism minister, said earlier today that she was “very relaxed” about not being fielded, adding that it was what she wanted.

Gan, who is the interim deputy youth and sports minister, was summoned last August ― along with Umno deputy minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin ― by deputy BN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to explain their public opposition to Section 114A of the Evidence Act 1950.

MCA won only 15 out of 40 parliamentary seats that it contested in Election 2008; seven of the seats it won are located in Johor.

The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact, however, is striving to make inroads into the MCA stronghold by fielding DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang in the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat.

The Malaysian Insider reported today that BN would field caretaker Johor mentri besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman in Gelang Patah after MCA yielded the seat to Umno.

Dr Chua, who had been expected to take on Lim, said last Thursday that he would not be contesting the May 5 polls to “prove” that he was committed to serving the party, instead of clamouring for power.

PKR ran in Gelang Patah in the past two general elections, but lost both times to Johor Wanita MCA chief Tan Ah Eng.

Tan won the seat in Election 2008 with a majority of 8,851 votes, a smaller majority than the overwhelming 31,666-vote majority in 2004.

The Chinese comprise 54 per cent of the Gelang Patah electorate, while Malays and Indians make up 34 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.