GE15 Padang Serai: PN to rile up voters to send signal objecting PH-BN 'illegal marriage'

 

PN candidate Datuk Azman Nasrudin said many voters felt they were cheated by PH and BN which had earlier denied a secret pact ahead of the 15th General Election (GE15) last Saturday. - NSTP/DANIAL SAAD

PADANG SERAI: Perikatan Nasional (PN) is out to turn the Padang Serai parliamentary election into a people's referendum to object the 'illegal marriage' between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) in forming the federal government.

PN candidate Datuk Azman Nasrudin said many voters felt they were cheated by PH and BN which had earlier denied a secret pact ahead of the 15th General Election (GE15) last Saturday.

"The people, in particular a majority of the Malays can't accept Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the Prime Minister, although at the end we accept the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's decision.

"But the message in Padang Serai today is that Umno and PH supporters had been cheated.

"It was just last week Anwar denied having any cooperation with BN, but today, it was already proven to be true," he said when met during a rally in Merbau Pulas here.

Azman described the cooperation between PH and BN to form the federal government as an 'illegal marriage' as it was rejected by supporters of both coalitions, in particular Umno grassroots leaders and members.

"From the beginning many of them had objected the (the cooperation) as it was against the resolution approved in Umno General Assembly on 'No Anwar' and 'No DAP'.

"Hence, when Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Umno president) is proven to support Anwar today, perhaps he supported Anwar with a condition to set Zahid free from his court cases.

"This is what I meant by 'illegal marriage' because it was not approved by Umno grassroot leaders and supporters," he said.

Azman adds that the Malay voters who felt they were betrayed and cheated would send a clear signal to PH and Anwar in that they were rejecting leaders who had misled them in GE15.

"We wil work hard to get as many voters as possible, we hope the voters turn out will be at least 80 per cent.

"We hope the Malay voters will make a good use of their vote to send a signal that they have decided to make a change now and in the upcoming state election," he said.

Azman expressed confidence that the momentum of support for PN in Kedah in Saturday's GE15 remained strong to reject both PH and BN in Padang Serai polls.

"In Kedah, PH is only left with one parliamentary seat in Sungai Petani where they only won by just 1,100 majority votes.

"We want to prove that in Padang Serai PN will win with a huge majority," he said.

For record, PN sprung a surprise in GE15 after winning 13 out of 14 parliamentary seats up for grab in Kedah on Saturday.

PH lost five seats it won the previous general election to PN, namely Alor Setar, Kuala Kedah, Pokok Sena, Merbok, Kulim-Bandar Baharu while BN failed to retain its two seats Padang Terap and Baling.

The Padang Serai parliamentary seat was previously held by M. Karupaiya when he secured a 8,813 vote majority win, beating MCA candidate Datuk Dr Leong Yong Kong and Mohammad Sobri Osman from Pas at the GE14.

Karupaiya, 69, was nominated again PH on Nov 5 by to defend the seat. However, he died on Nov 16, two days after being admitted to Kulim Hospital due to a heart attack while campaigning.

Following his passing, the EC had decided to postpone the Padang Serai polls to Dec 7.

Padang Serai has 133,767 eligible voters, with 81,230 of then voters in Lunas state constituency while the remaining 52,546 are voters in Merbau Pulas constituency.

Azman is facing a six-cornered fight to wrest Padang Serai which was won by PH since the 2008.

He is locking horns with PH candidate Dr Mohamad Sofee Razak; Datuk C. Sivaraj (BN); Mohd Bakhri Hashim (Parti Warisan); Hamzah Abdul Rahman (Parti Pejuang Tanah Air), and Sreanandha Rao (Independent). - NST