Bersatu: We will defend Tanjung Piai seat

JOHOR BARU: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia is confident it will be defending the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat.

Its state chief Mazlan Bujang said there was no question that Bersatu would be defending the seat nor would they hand it over to their Pakatan Harapan partners.

“It has already been agreed upon by all of our partners within Pakatan that Tanjung Piai is Bersatu seat,” he said when contacted here yesterday.

Mazlan, who is also Puteri Wangsa assemblyman, said Johor Pakatan would hold a meeting once its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was back in the country from an official visit to the United States.

He said the meeting would only touch on the situation in Tanjung Piai.

“Johor Pakatan wanted to know the voters’ sentiment there. We will hold another meeting after that to discuss the list of candidates,” he said.

Tanjung Piai MP Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik, who was also Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, died of a heart attack on Saturday.

In the last general election, Dr Md Farid defeated Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng of MCA and Nordin Othman from PAS with a majority of 524 votes.

Meanwhile, political analyst Dr Mohd Akbal Abdullah said the Tanjung Piai by-election would be the first major test of Umno-PAS unity pact.

“However, if we look into the results of the three previous by-elections – Cameron Highlands, Semenyih and Rantau – Barisan seems to have the advantage over Pakatan.

“Pakatan will be going into the by-election with many unresolved issues and internal feud among its leaders, which will be a major obstacle for them and that should boost Barisan’s confidence,” he said.