Gerakan not discouraged, will fully support PN candidate - Lau

Gerakan not discouraged, will fully support PN candidate - Lau

Published: Apr 27, 2024 9:56 PM


KKB BY-ELECTION | Gerakan will not be discouraged after not being selected to represent Perikatan Nasional in the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election.

Its president Dominic Lau said the selection of PN candidates from Bersatu was based on the agreement of all coalition components.

"We indeed evaluated and selected PN candidates in a professional, fair, and equitable way.

"All parties that have shown the desire to list their respective candidates to run were given time and opportunity to explain the advantages of their respective components.

"On the day of the candidate selection meeting, we made a joint decision to choose the best candidate to represent PN," he told Malaysiakini.

For the record, Gerakan’s Teoh Kien Hong represented PN in the Selangor state election in August last year. However, Teoh was defeated by the late Lee Kee Hiong from Pakatan Harapan with a majority of 4,119 votes.

The seat became vacant after Lee died on March 21.


Fully support PN

In the beginning, many political observers predicted that Gerakan would contest again in the by-election.

In fact, on April 20, Lau expressed his hope to field a candidate from his party under the PN ticket in Kuala Kubu Baharu.

However, PN instead announced the Hulu Selangor Bersatu acting division chief Khairul Azhari Saut as a candidate. He will face Pang Sock Tao from Harapan, Hafizah Zainudin (Parti Rakyat Malaysia) and Nyau Ke Xin (independent).

Meanwhile, Lau said his party will fully support PN.

"We will mainly attract the support of non-Malays. Gerakan will make every effort to get full support for PN," he said.

Kuala Kubu Baharu is known as a “mixed seat”, with a breakdown of Malay (46 percent), Chinese (30 percent), Indian (18 percent), and six percent of other voters.

A total of 40,226 voters are eligible to vote in this by-election which will take place on May 11, with early voting on May 7.

Of that number, 39,362 are ordinary voters, 238 are military personnel and their spouses, 625 are police personnel, and one is an overseas absentee voter.