Don’t judge me by who I worked for, Hamzah’s ex-aide tells voters

 

All six candidates on stage at the nomination centre for the Larkin state seat after their names were officially announced by the returning officer yesterday.

JOHOR BAHRU: Perikatan Nasional’s candidate for the Larkin seat, Zulkifli Bujang, has urged voters to judge him by his experience, not his past job as the press secretary for home minister Hamzah Zainudin.

When met after being nominated yesterday, the former senior reporter said voters should evaluate how he could serve them based on his experience in the government sector.

“We can’t always be looking at one’s former employers.

“I had indirectly worked for former Johor menteri besar Khaled Nordin, too, last time, I don’t think that’s an issue,” he told FMT.

Zulkifli Bujang.

He also dismissed talk that there were some in the Bersatu leadership who were unhappy with his nomination, maintaining that his candidacy was strategic.

“We have certain strategies in place. I think there is no issue and no question of dissatisfaction or anything like that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Barisan Nasional’s candidate for the seat, Hairi Mad Shah, said the six-cornered fight was not necessarily an advantage for him, believing that each party in contention had a good chance of winning the seat.

“This is a democracy and we must welcome any candidate who’s nominated.

“For BN, we are committed to receiving new faces as candidates. And as you know, all six candidates contesting for this seat are new faces.”

Zulkifli and Hairi are in a six-way fight for Larkin, which will also see Muda’s Rasid Abu Bakar and PKR’s Dr Zamil Najwah clashing.

Pejuang has also fielded a candidate, Riadz Mohamad Hashim. On top of that, Norramadan Buan is standing as an independent.

The Larkin seat was won by Bersatu’s Izhar Ahmad in 2018, when the party contested under Pakatan Harapan, with 25,012 votes, giving him a majority of 8,590 votes.

Johor goes to the polls on March 12, with early voting slated for March 8. - FMT