Tears flow at FT Amanah meet over zero seat allocation

Gloom and tears filled a room where central Amanah leaders and its Federal Territory members met last night.

According to a source, who chose to remain anonymous, the situation was triggered when a member voiced out his grievances at the Federal Territory chapter being allocated no seats by Harapan for the 14th general election.

"I feel (they) cried because some of the members have been with Amanah since the party was established in Kuala Lumpur.

"The particular member shed tears, not because he was angry for being denied seats, but because he has sacrificed so much for the party," said the source.

According to another source, members broke into tears while the man spoke, with some of the leaders present also looking like they were holding back tears.

Amanah communications director Khalid Samad, when contacted, acknowledged the gloomy situation at the meet yesterday.

But although he was sad, he did not cry, he said in jest.

"They (party members) cried because they did not get any seats in the Federal Territory. The situation was sombre, but we did not cry in groups," he said.

Meanwhile, Tarmizi Mohd Jam, the deputy chairperson of Federal Territory Amanah, said on Facebook that party president Mohamad Sabu (photo) talked about the loss of the Titiwangsa seat at the meeting.

"The president explained the loss of the seat, which left Amanah with no seats to contest in the Federal Territory in GE14.

"Several resolutions were made to get (the party) out of the predicament, and the party president and the seat negotiations team will see the matter through," Tarmizi wrote.

Also present at the meeting were the party’s strategic director Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Youth chief Mohd Sany Hamzan, Wanita chief Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud and Federal Territory chief Dr Hatta Ramli.

Several state Amanah divisions – including those from Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Perak – voiced their dissatisfaction about not being allocated seats, following Sunday's Pakatan Harapan convention.

The Federal territory chapter is expected to hold a press conference on updates to seat allocation talks soon.

In his speech during the convention on Sunday, Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir openly praised Amanah for being a "generous" party.

"This Amanah party, we can't say it's new, or old. They surfaced during the 13th general election under a different name, but they asked for their old seats, that was not possible.

"But they were generous and in the end, it was Amanah who helped the division of seats among the four parties," he had said.

It was announced during the convention that out of the 12 Federal Territories seats, PKR and DAP would contest in five each, while Bersatu will contest in the remaining two seats, leaving none for Amanah.

In Johor, Amanah will only be allowed to contest two seats, namely Parit Sulong and Pulai.

- Mkini