PPBM confident of stopping Umno in Najib’s home state

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan (PH) has challenged Umno’s claim that the opposition lacked leaders and grassroots support in Pahang.

PPBM information chief, Kamarudin Md Nor, said it was ironic for Umno to make such a claim when it could not even win in Kuantan, the state’s capital.

“If Umno is so strong in Pahang, how did it lose Kuantan to PKR?” he asked, in response to Kuantan Umno liason committee member Wan Emril Nizam Embong who said the opposition would find it hard to fight Umno in Pahang at the next general election.

Kamarudin reminded Emril that Umno was defeated in Kuantan by PKR’s Fuziah Salleh, despite an increase in Malay voters.

In 2008, Fuziah won the seat with a slim majority against MCA’s Fu Ah Kiow, getting 52% of the votes.

In 2013, Umno decided to “borrow” the seat from MCA, but was defeated by Fuziah who got 54% of the votes.

Kamarudin admitted that Pahang was a Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold, but said “anything is possible in politics” even in the home state of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

At the next polls, PPBM has been given the lion’s share of parliamentary seats to be contested by PH in Pahang.

Besides Najib’s constituency of Pekan, the party will stand in Lipis, Paya Besar, Maran, Jerantut and Kuala Krau.

Kamarudin said the seats have large rural Malay populations as well as Felda settlements.

“We are contesting in areas where there is a majority of hardcore Umno supporters,” he told FMT. -FMT