Fierce battle awaits Tok Pa

BN candidate keen to retain Air Lanas seat he won in 2013

KOTA BARU: The Air Lanas state seat will be a major attention-grabber with potential Barisan Nasional mentri besar candidate Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (pic) determined to retain the seat he won by a razorthin majority of 47 votes in 2013.

Mustapa won the Jeli parliamentary seat with a handsome 5,336 vote-majority, but beat PAS’ Air Lanas incumbent Abdullah Ya’kub with the slimmest majority recorded in Kelantan in the last GE.

Abdullah was victorious in Air Lanas in 1995, 1999 and 2008 against other Barisan candidates. His two losses there both came at Mustapa’s hands – in 2004 and 2013.

Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia is fielding former Jeli volunteer medical team chief Dr Aminuddin Yaakob in Air Lanas against the state Barisan chief, who is defending both seats.

Pribumi is also sending Mustapa’s former subordinate Azran Deraman to contest in Jeli.

Azran was former Kelantan International Trade and Industry Ministry director under Mustapa, who was the minister.

The full candidate list has yet to be unveiled in Kelantan as PAS and its bitter rival Parti Amanah Negara have not released their lists, but intense fights are also expected in Kota Baru, Kota Lama, Machang, Pasir Puteh, Bachok and Ketereh.

Amanah vice-president Husam Musa is set to challenge PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan and Barisan's Fikhran Hamshi Muhammad Fatmi for the Kota Baru parliamentary seat.

Another seat to watch is Kota Lama. The state seat will see a four-cornered fight involving MCA’s sole Kelantan candidate Chua Hock Kuan, former Election Commission chief Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Ab Rahman for Pribumi, state PSM chief Khairul Nizam Abdul Ghani and four-term incumbent Datuk Annuar Tan Abdullah of PAS.

Kota Lama is the only seat in Kelantan where more than onethird of the voters are Chinese.

Another four-cornered fight is expected in the Pasir Mas parliamentary seat now that Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali has thrown his hat into the ring.

Pasir Puteh will see Kelantan Pribumi chief Datuk Kamaruddin Mohd Nor sandwiched between religious titans – PAS syura council secretary Nik Muhamad Zawawi Nik Salleh and Barisan’s Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.

Umno information chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa is defending his Ketereh parliamentary seat against challengers Dr Mohd Rodzi Mohd Jidin of Pribumi and Wan Rohimi Wan Daud of PAS.

Kelantan Amanah chief Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Abdullah said it would make the final decision on candidates after PAS reveals its candidates’ list tonight.

“We want to match the right candidates to take on PAS,” he said.

Amanah is contesting 23 state seats, Pribumi 13 and PKR nine.

Pribumi is contesting seven parliamentary seats, Amanah five and PKR two.