MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE IN BATTLE FOR KUALA LANGAT

BANTING – Voters at the semi-urban parliament seat of Kuala Langat are in a pickle over who to vote in the 14th General Election (GE14) come May 9.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate has said he wouldn’t rule out PAS although it is seen as a toss-up between BN and Pakatan Harapan.

The campaigning trail along the quaint town of Teluk Panglima Garang this morning saw BN’s young gun Shahril Sufian Hamdan, 32, and PKR vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar bumping into each other at the morning market site.

Speaking to theSun, Shahril who is presently the CEO for Destini Oil Services said the transition from the corporate line to politics has been smooth due to the work he had been doing in the constituency for the past four years.

“Throughout my work, here, I find the majority of the constituents to be very simple people with no major demands except for the basics such as better roads and more scheduled rubbish collection.

“The walkabout at the Teluk Panglima Garang morning market sees the area strewn with rubbish due to the unscheduled collection which has contributed to disease, foul smell
and causes fewer people to thrive the place.

“This is something I intend to address if I get the people’s mandate,” he said.

The lad who grew up in Shah Alam and is well versed in Mandarin by virtue of having a Chinese mother also has several distant relatives from Permatang Pasir within the
constituency but said that won’t give him an advantage over the others.

“The impression is that the fight may look like a straight one between BN and Pakatan Harapan but PAS should not be treated as the dark horses either. They have done good work here as well,” he added.

PAS’ candidate and former Klang Hospital director Datuk Dr Yahya Baba is expected to give a tough fight for the seat. It is learnt that Yahya has been focusing his campaign trail along the Malay villages in Sijangkang and Morib state constituencies with the backing of former Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Abdul Khalid along with his former political secretary Faekah Husin had appeared to speak at a ceramah in Morib with Yahya and PAS’ candidate for the Morib state seat Dr Sallehuddin Hafiz, last night.

Meanwhile, Xavier who is making his bid for a parliament seat having served two terms as the now-defunct Seri Andalas assemblyman says his previous experience in the Selangor government would serve the constituents well.

“Despite it being only the second day of campaigning, it has been pretty intense and the party machinery is working towards covering every part of the constituency by
May 8.

“Being a seat held by PKR for the past two terms, the people have been very receptive towards me during my walkabouts,” he said adding that his experience as the state
executive councillor between 2008 to 2013 had made the constituents, here, recognise him more.

Xavier opined despite the seat being a Malay-majority, there are no issues in the manner of serving his constituents.

The parliament seat has 102,405 registered voters comprising roughly 61,268 (60%) Malays (inclusive of Orang Asli); 27,436 (24%) Chinese and 16,401 (16%) Indians with three state seats under it namely Banting, Sijangkang and Morib.

– http://www.thesundaily.my