10-cornered fight for Kadamaian?
KOTA BELUD: An “overcrowded” field of up to 10 candidates could be expected in Kadamaian state constituency at the coming general election.
A veteran political activist, Kanul Gindol, said judging from current interest shown by individuals and political parties here, Kadamaian might see the highest multi-cornered fight among the opposition parties against a sole Barisan Nasional candidate.
“This possibly 10-cornered fight will surely split the ‘oppposition votes' in Kadamaian which up to June last year has 17,000 over voters.
“Assuming turnout will be around 15,000, and in a crowded field, the candidate who gets more than 3,600 votes could be the winner,” he said at his political talk at Kampung Mangkulat near here over the weekend.
Kanul, 51, a former journalist who stood as an independent for the Kota Belud parliamentary seat in the 2013 general election, is expected to stand again for the seat, this time probably on a ticket of a major party.
In his speech, Kanul said he also forsees a multi-cornered fight for the Kota Belud parliamentary seat which now has over 57,000 voters.
“There will be many factors influencing preferences of the voters. I expect three factors that many would consider seriously are images of the political party of the candidates, the candidates themselves and the presidents of their respective parties.
“Things are fluid and we never know if there will be new alignments or last-minute electoral pacts ahead of the election,” Kanul said.
He added that as a pro-change activist, he wished for the people in Kota Belud to really ponder on the track records of parties and individuals at the upcoming election.
“My wish for the rakyat here and elsewhere is deliverance from hardships and leaders who took people's mandate for granted,” he said.
The talk was organised by the locals and many of those who attended were youth leaders.