TANJUNG PIAI – Amanah’s Johor leadership has buried the hatchet with youth-based party Muda following their squabble over the Tanjung Piai parliamentary constituency in the run-up to the recent nomination day for the 15th general election (GE15).
Local Amanah leaders were seen enjoying dinner with Lim Wei Jiet, Muda’s candidate for the seat to represent the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, and members of his election machinery at the Kukup fishing village near here last night.
The Amanah delegation was led by its Johor committee member Datuk Mazlan Aliman, who was previously critical of the national PH leadership’s move to give way to Muda to contest in the constituency.
About ten policemen and Election Commission (EC) observers were also seen at the restaurant where the dinner took place.
One of the police officers told The Vibes that they were from the Pontian district police headquarters and were there just to monitor to ensure no commotion or untoward incident took place.
Speaking to reporters after the dinner, Mazlan said that it is important for PH to be seen united in the race leading up to polling on November 19.
“Any arising issues we had (over seat allocation) had been resolved before November 5 (nomination day). After that, we should switch our entire focus towards the seats we are contesting,” said Mazlan.
The former National Farmers Organisation chief added that he has since visited all constituencies with Felda settlements to mobilise the PH machineries there to support all PH candidates – be they from Amanah, DAP, PKR, or even Muda.
Although it is not a member of the coalition, Muda has made an electoral pact with PH to enter GE15 as partners using the PH logo.
Earlier, Lim commented that while Muda and Amanah members had exchanged heated comments with one another about the seat, the matter has been resolved now.
He said that Muda is committed to work with PH in order to win the Tanjung Piai constituency for PH.
The coalition had won the seat in the last general election in 2018, albeit with a slim majority of just 524 votes. The seat was won by Bersatu’s Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik, who passed away in September 2019 due to heart complications.
In the by-election held in November 2019, Barisan Nasional’s candidate Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng, who had previously held the seat between 2008 and 2018, emerged as the victor in a six-cornered fight with a 15,086-vote majority. – The Vibes, November 9, 2022
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