GOPENG, April 28 — Former Perak mentri besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin will have to fight two old friends on May 9 to capture the Sungai Rapat state seat.

One of them is the incumbent assemblyman from PAS Radzi Zainon and the other is Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Hamzah Kasim.

Their friendship goes back years. Nizar knew Radzi from his days in PAS until the former switched to Parti Amanah Negara, of which he is now the state vice-chairman.

His friendship with the BN candidate from Umno goes back even further. Nizar and Hamzah shared a dormitory as boarding school students at the Sekolah Menengah Teknik Brash Drive in Ipoh in 1974.

Though the candidates are political foes now, each said their friendship is important and promised to fight fairly.

"I won’t be resorting to personal attacks, but we are confident of getting the support of the voters.

"I have been told that there is some unhappiness among Umno supporters in Sungai Rapat, and this could be something positive for us,” Nizar told reporters after the Election Commission (EC) confirmed his candidacy here today.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate also spoke respectfully of Radzi, saying the PAS man is a force to be reckoned with as his party seeks to sway some of the conservative Islamist party’s grassroots support in these next few days of campaigning, which officially begins today.

"We have been whispering to them, telling them that we are the party that can bring about change and deliver the service they want, because they won’t be able to form the government,” Nizar said.

He will be contesting under the PKR logo in the elections as agreed by the four parties in the PH pact.

Hamzah echoed Nizar’s sentiments, stressing that the duo’s friendship could be maintained despite their differences.

"We are still friends until now, but the struggle is separate. No matter what, I will always fight for my principles,” he told Malay Mail.

Hamzah also said he was not overly concerned about how the PH-PAS split would affect BN’s chances.

"The crucial thing is opening people’s eyes to what we have done for them, and what we can continue to do for them,” he said.

"In Sungai Rapat, for example, we are going to launch a flood mitigation system that will be a long-term solution to the flooding problems in the area,” Hamzah added.

The Sungai Rapat contest had earlier looked to be a four-cornered contest, as Independent candidate G. Balachandran entered the nomination centre here with papers for his candidacy.

However, he was disqualified after the EC found that his proposer and seconder were registered voters in Tronoh instead of Sungai Rapat.

The three candidates will be battling for the hearts and minds of 31,878 voters in the Malay-majority constituency.

Sungai Rapat is one of three state constituencies under the Gopeng parliamentary seat.

The other two state seats, Teja and Simpang Pulai, were won by PKR in GE13. Like Sungai Rapat, both will also see three-way contests.

In Simpang Pulai, BN’s Liew Yee Lin and PAS’ Mohd Arif Abd Latiff are challenging the incumbent assemblyman from PKR Tan Kar Hing.

In Teja, first-time PKR candidate Ng Shy Chin will attempt to fend off challenges from BN’s Datuk Chang Chun Cheun and PAS’ Mokhthar Abdullah.

Gopeng incumbent MP from PKR Dr Lee Boon Chye will also be fighting to keep his parliamentary seat from BN’s Datuk Heng Seai Kie who is also the MCA Wanita chief and PAS’ Ismail Ariffin.