Justice Alliance eyes 5 seats
AN MP and three state assemblymen who quit DAP last year will contest in the 14th general election (GE14) as independent candidates.
Incumbent Kota Melaka MP Sim Tong Him, incumbent assemblymen Goh Leong San (Duyong), Lim Jak Wong (Bachang) and Chin Choon Seong (Kesidang), who formed the Justice Alliance, will be using the key as their symbol, the Chinese press reported yesterday.
Sim will be contesting the Kota Laksamana state seat whereas Goh will go for both parliamentary (Kota Melaka) and state seat (Kesidang). Lim and Chin will contest the Ayer Keroh and Bandar Hilir state seats respectively.
These seats will also be contested by both the DAP and MCA.
At a joint press conference with Goh, Lim and Chin at his Kota Laksamana service centre on Wednesday, Sim stressed that the Justice Alliance has decided not to contest the Duyong state seat to avoid being accused of splitting opposition votes to hand MCA the victory should DAP lose the seat.
In GE13, Goh won the Duyong seat with a slim majority of 205 votes over Gan Tian Loo of MCA.
“If one of us contests the seat (Duyong) and MCA emerges victorious, they (the DAP) will point their fingers at us,” said Sim. “Taking cognisance of this possibility, we have decided to contest seats which DAP won with a big majority in the last general election. “This will also show that we as independents have the courage to face the electorate.” He said should DAP lose constituencies considered as its fortresses because of Justice Alliance’s participation, the opposition party should do some soul searching after the election instead of pointing fingers. Sim also said the alliance chose to announce its candidates early to give both DAP and MCA time to make changes to their line-ups.