Zafrul to campaign for other candidates

 

After not being named as a candidate in the coming state elections, Umno supreme council member Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said he will campaign for other candidates instead.

He said as a supreme council member and Kota Raja division chief, he merely wanted Umno to secure a stronger foothold in Selangor and prove it is not dependent on Pakatan Harapan.

He leaves the strategising on how best to achieve this to the wisdom of the party leadership.

“But when it is decided that I will not contest, it clearly means that in the leadership’s judgement, my role is not part of the strategy.

“But as a member of the party - I am a party man – I will still help the unity government candidates who are contesting, not only in Selangor but also in the five other states involved in the elections,” he told Malaysiakini.

Zafrul was speculated to have been earmarked as the next Selangor menteri besar.

Sources in Umno and Harapan previously told Malaysiakini the initial plan was to place Zafrul in Sungai Kandis but PKR was allegedly unwilling to let go of the seat which it held for four consecutive terms.

The plan was then moved to Dusun Tua which is held by a DAP incumbent, and DAP was initially willing to make way after learning the plan was for Zafrul to contest there.

However, the situation turned sour after local DAP party machinery learned that former Semenyih state assemblyperson Johan Abdul Aziz will be contesting instead.

The BN’s candidate announcement event in Kuala Lumpur tonight confirmed that Johan will be contesting Dusun Tua, replacing the DAP incumbent Edry Faizal Eddy Yusof.

Dusun Tua is a Malay-majority seat with about 63 percent Malay voters, followed by Chinese (28 percent), Indian (seven percent), and others (two percent).

It used to be Umno’s traditional seat up until 2013 when PAS’ Razaly Hassan won in the 13th general election, defeating the then-incumbent Ismail Sani.

Razaly was in turn defeated by Edry Faizal in the 2018 general election by a majority of 10,422 votes. - Mkini