KUALA LUMPUR – Pakatan Harapan's (PH) candidate for Titiwangsa, Khalid Samad has revealed he would have been happy to retire were he not given a seat to contest in for the 15th general election (GE15).
Dismissing claims that he had left Shah Alam for Titiwangsa, Khalid explained that the decision for him to leave his incumbency and allow his second-liner to take over had been made beforehand.
“It’s more like we already decided that for this coming election, Azli (Yusof) would take over, because I’ve already been there for 14 years,” he said, adding: “This is my own philosophy, in which I do not believe one should hold on to the seat forever and make it one’s own personal location.”
As for the choice of Titiwangsa, Khalid claims that the Amanah leadership was the one that decided he should contest there.
“I was informed about the seat of Titiwangsa being available and being given to Amanah.
“So, the leadership decided that I should be the one,” he said.
As the seat came to Amanah “by chance”, Khalid, who is the party’s communications director, said he accepted the responsibility, adding that “if there was no seat for me to contest, I would retire…that’s not an issue”.
Titiwangsa is a heavily populated, high-density urban seat home to landmarks such as Kg Baru and the Petronas Twin Towers.
In 2018, it was won by Datuk Seri Rina Harun, who was then running on a PH ticket.
In GE15, Khalid will go up against Dr Rosni Adam (PN-PAS), Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan (GTA-Pejuang), and former second finance minister Datuk Seri Johari Ghani (BN-Umno).
Malaysia goes to the polls on November 19. – The Vibes, November 17, 2022
