Saifuddin: Pakatan can win in Temerloh

The former MP for the constituency recommends PKR's Ahmad Nizam Hamid, whom he beat in 2008.

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan secretary-general Saifuddin Abdullah, who lost his Temerloh seat to PAS in 2013, has voiced his belief that the opposition alliance can wrest it from the Islamist party in the coming election.

Stressing that he was giving his personal opinion, he told FMT he would recommend that Pakatan choose, as its candidate, PKR’s Ahmad Nizam Hamid, whom he beat in the 2008 election.

Saifuddin, a former deputy minister, was an Umno candidate when he lost the seat to PAS’s Nasruddin Hassan by 1,070 votes.

He said he agreed with the finding of a survey by Universiti Malaya’s Centre for Democracy and Elections that his defeat was due to the “ubah” wave.

The Chinese voters, especially, were influenced by their younger family members, most of whom did not live in Temerloh and hence did not know him personally, he added.

For GE14, he said, he was hoping that a three-corner fight could be avoided, “but if PAS chooses to defend Termerloh, it’s still possible for Pakatan to win it”.

“PAS has two problems in Temerloh: the Chinese will not vote for it and many are questioning the commitment of the current MP, who often is not in town. Even when he is, it’s mostly for ceramahs only.”

He disclosed that PKR and Amanah were still negotiating to contest for the seat, but he said it was a “naturally good seat for PKR” because of the racial make-up of the constituents.

According to the Statistics Department’s 2010 census, Malays make up 75.7% of Temerloh residents, Chinese 15.8%, Indians 7.8% and other races 0.7% .

In GE12, Saifuddin won more than 53% of the votes against Nizam. For GE13, Nizam contested the Lanchang state seat within Temerloh and lost to Umno’s Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin by 1,100 votes.

However, Saifuddin said Nizam would be a good candidate to field in Temerloh in the coming election, especially in the event of a three-corner fight.

“PAS will most probably not field the incumbent and a new candidate will not find it easy, especially if PKR were to field Temerloh boy Nizam, who is a seasoned guy,” he said.

As for the state seats within Temerloh, Saifuddin said he believed Amanah would do well in Kuala Semantan, DAP would be good in Mentakab and either PKR or PPBM should contest for Lanchang.

Kuala Semantan is a PAS stronghold, but its assemblyman, Syed Hamid Mohamed, defected to Amanah in 2015.

Lanchang is usually contested by a PKR candidate, but Saifuddin described it is an Umno stronghold. “So perhaps PPBM is a better choice,” he said.

Mentakab is a mixed seat. Saifuddin said the Malay votes there would be almost equally divided, with Umno winning slightly more, and most of the Chinese votes would go to Pakatan. -FMT