KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Kuala Selangor MP Datuk Irmohizam Ibrahim praised Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar voters today for retaining Barisan Nasional (BN) in the two parliamentary seats at yesterday’s elections.
The Umno lawmaker said BN’s victory in the two west coast seats proved the people support Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s leadership despite the “politics of slander and sedition” which he claimed to have been employed by the federal opposition during its campaigning.
“This victory is proof that the people reject Tun M’s and Lim Kit Siang’s declaration,” Irmohizam said in a statement, referring to the Citizens’ Declaration signature petition initiated by a non-partisan group frontlined by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his former political adversaries-turned allies.
“Clearly, the people are wise to evaluate and want Najib to continue leading Malaysia. The people can judge a leader’s sincerity. They reject politics of slander and sedition as practised by the opposition,” he added.
Irmohizam said the two by-elections also showed the BN coalition won because it is a “mature political party” in contrast to the fragmented opposition.
He urged the voters to continue to support the ruling coalition at the 14th general elections due in two years.
The BN won big in both the Selangor and Perak seats with its Sungai Besar candidate Budiman Mohd Zohdi garnering 13,931 votes against Parti Amanah Negara’s Azhar Abdul Shukur (5,803 votes) and PAS’s Dr Abdul Rani Osman (5,700 votes).
Its candidate Datin Mastura Mohd Yazid won the Kuala Kangsar parliamentary seat with 12,653 votes defeating PAS’s Dr Najihatussalehah Ahmad with 5,684 votes, Amanah’s Dr Ahmad Termizi Ramli (4,883 votes), and independent candidate Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary (54 votes).
