SABAK BERNAM, June 14 — With three more nights till polling day, a small group of Sungai Besar Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) members announced they will be batting for Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Budiman Mohd Zohdi instead.

Mohd Sapigni Tulus who led a six-man group but claimed to represent over 32 told a news conference here tonight that they were disappointed with their party’s leadership to “parachute” a non-local Azhar Shukur into the Selangor parliamentary seat for the June 18 by-election.

“We feel that the candidate fielded does not represent Amanah in any way. He is not a local candidate and he doesn’t even live here. Azhar is a parachute candidate,” said Sapigni, who claimed to be the former Amanah assistant sponsorship chief.

The group said it would rather campaign for local-born Budiman so he can raise issues they felt to be relevant to the community.

“There is no other choice but to support Budiman among the three candidates. His track record proves he is the most suitable person to lead Sungai Besar,” Sapigni added.

The group claimed to have raised Azhar’s candidacy with the state leadership prior to nomination without success.

Despite their disappointment, the six said they would not quit Amanah but will instead wait and see if the party leadership takes action against them.

“I’m good with anything but for now I have not thought about it. See if they would take any action against me,” Sapigni said.

Formerly an Umno member, Sapigni said he joined Amanah last year when the party was newly formed. He also claimed to have funded the party’s establishment.

However, an Amanah source who asked not to be named attributed Sapigni’s revolt to the latter’s unhappiness at losing out in the selection of the Sungai Besar Amanah chief.

The Sungai Besar federal constituency has 42,836 voters comprising 22,227 Malays votes, 13,142 Chinese, and 820 Indians with 98 from other races, according to statistics from the Election Commission.

The fight for Sungai Besar involved Amanah’s Azhar, BN’s Budiman and PAS’s Dr Rani Osman.