Alor Gajah PKR has requested for the Pakatan Harapan leadership to field its division chief Ginie Lim in the parliamentary seat for the 15th general election.
However, this has faced resistance from PKR’s top leadership.
Lim told Malaysiakini that party members had expressed their desire to field her as an Alor Gajah candidate and this was conveyed on several occasions to the party leadership.
“After the (Malacca) state election last year, party grassroots members were hoping I would be fielded as a candidate for the (Alor Gajah) parliamentary seat.
“(They) informed party leaders (of their wishes) when I was not fielded as a candidate (in the state polls) last year.
“They hoped I would be given a chance for Alor Gajah because this is where we have a strong base,” she said.
In the last Malacca polls, the PKR central leadership had dropped Lim (above) from defending her Machap Jaya state seat.
This led to an uproar within PKR grassroots, who claimed that the chosen candidate Lau Beng Hau was not a winnable one and did not have the support of the local machinery.
The seat was then lost to MCA’s Ngwe Hee Sem by a 938 majority.
Lim said the Alor Gajah PKR division had been working hard within the constituency since the state election with hopes that she would represent Harapan in GE15.
This is despite DAP’s long history of contesting Alor Gajah.
‘It’s a DAP seat’
Malacca DAP chairperson Damian Yeo Shen Li said that DAP was still vying for Alor Gajah.
“In a very crowded place, each and every party has its allocated area.
“Alor Gajah has never been a PKR seat. It is DAP’s seat, and it is up to the DAP leadership to decide what is best for Harapan as a whole,” he told Malaysiakini.
Yesterday, Malaysia Gazette reported that PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli had requested Lim to stop her party division from claiming the Alor Gajah seat.
Rafizi had reportedly insisted that the seat did not belong to PKR.
“Alor Gajah has never been a PKR seat in several elections. The seat belongs to DAP.
“During the seat allocation discussions in the Malacca polls, a final decision was made that Alor Gajah would be handed back to DAP in exchange for more State Legislative Assembly seats (given to PKR),” Rafizi was quoted as saying, in a Whatsapp conversation with PKR division chiefs.
Alor Gajah PKR has made several public statements in recent weeks, claiming that fence sitters wanted a candidate who is familiar with the constituents.
On Oct 19, Alor Gajah PKR division Youth chief Denesh Palasubramaniam said PKR had continuously built the strength of its grassroots since Tian Chua contested in the area in 1999.
Chua contested in the now-defunct Selandar parliamentary seat back in 1999, which was carved out of the Alor Gajah constituency in 1986. He lost to MCA’s Fong Chan Onn by a 10,739 majority.
Through redelineation, a constitutional process in delimiting electoral boundaries, Selandar was reabsorbed into the Alor Gajah constituency in 2004.
In 2018, the Alor Gajah seat was fielded to Bersatu as a component party of the coalition. It was won by incumbent MP Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof.
However, the party quit Harapan in February 2020 following the Sheraton Move.
Alor Gajah was a BN stronghold in Malacca for 44 years until Harapan seized it in 2018. - Mkini
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