TELUK INTAN: Barisan Nasional (BN) has never underestimated any candidate, including new faces, contesting for the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat in the 14th General Election (GE14), the coalition candidate for the seat Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong said.
He said it would be foolish for anyone to underestimate their opponents in the keenly contested seat.
“Everyone vying for the seat must be given due respect. You never know what could happen in a three way fight and this is the first time we are seeing it happen in Teluk Intan,” he said.
The Teluk Intan parliamentary seat and the two state seats under the constituency will see a three-cornered fight between Barisan Nasional (BN), PKR and PAS.
The Teluk Intan seat will see Mah - who is the incumbent MP, defending the seat he won in a by-election in May 2014 against PKR’s Nga Kor Ming and PAS' Dr Ahmad Ramadzan Ahmad Daud.
There will also be three-cornered fights for the Pasir Bedamar and Changkat Jong state seats.
For Pasir Bedamar, its incumbent Terence Naidu of PKR will be defending his seat against Kong Sun Chin of BN and S. Kumaresan of PAS.
As for the Changkat Jong state seat, it will be a fight between its incumbent Datuk Mohd Azhar Jamaluddin (BN), Muhammad Faizul Mohamed Ismail (PKR) and Mohd Azhar Mohd Rafiei (PAS).
Mah said the three cornered fights were a new challenge and he could not take anyone lightly.
He was commenting on a statement by Pas candidate for Changkat Jong, Mohd Azhar, that the Islamist party had the numbers to determine the outcome at the ballot.
He was quoted as saying that although Pas was the underdog, it was capable of pulling off a surprise especially in the state seat he was contesting.
The BN incumbent of Changkat Jong, Mohd Azhar Jamaluddin, won in 2013 with a majority of 1,118 over Mohd Anuar Sudin of PAS.
"Based on the statistics or figures that we obtained from the previous election, a portion of the votes came from PAS supporters.
"These votes would be the deciding factors of who will win the parliamentary seat and the state seats.
"For example, our presence in Changkat Jong is quite strong so if we translate it into numbers for the parliamentary seat, PAS actually stand a chance of winning the seat," he was reported to have said.
Responding to the Pas warning, BN’s Mohd Azhar Jamaluddin also voiced Mah’s sentiments that nothing could be taken for granted.
He said the Changkat Jong seat had traditionally been a battlefield between Umno and Pas.
“Therefore, BN has never underestimated them (Pas). However, we are confident the people would be able to evaluate what BN has done for them all this while and make the right choice when they vote.
On another note, Mah said the perception that outstation voters planning to return to cast their ballots on May 9 would largely support the opposition was incorrect.
He said there were many such voters who were also BN supporters.
