GE14 | Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said it was within Special Affairs Department director-general Mohd Puad Zarkashi's right to contest under a different ticket after BN did not field him to defend the parliamentary seat of Batu Pahat.
However, Zahid said such a move would not be in the spirit of an Umno supreme council leader.
"If the district operations centre are temporarily closed due to protests and he (Puad) wants to contest on any ticket, that is up to him.
"But (if that happens), he is not showing strong party spirit even though he is an Umno supreme council member and Jasa director-general.
"It is a democratic country so it is up to him," Zahid was quoted as saying by Bernama in Kuching.
Zahid was responding to rumours that Puad would be resigning from Jasa, the government's propaganda arm, and subsequently contest as an independent in the parliamentary seat of Batu Pahat and state seat in Senggarang.
The rumours were based on two messages purportedly sent by Puad to friends.
However, Puad has not responded to repeated attempts to verify the authenticity of those messages.
Zahid said BN decided to field another candidate who was more likely to recapture the seat from PKR based on an assessment of the political landscape.
He added that Puad needed to accept the reality that BN was facing an erosion of support in Batu Pahat.
BN today formally announced that Batu Pahat Wanita chief Haliza Abdullah would be contesting the parliamentary seat.
In the last general election, Puad suffered a shock defeat when he lost the seat to PKR's Mohd Idris Bin Jusi by a 1,732-vote majority. - Mkini
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