KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — Barisan Nasional (BN) has given up on several urban seats, including the Bukit Bintang and Seputeh constituencies in Kuala Lumpur which are DAP strongholds, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.
The party vice president said even if Umno placed its secretary general, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, against Seputeh incumbent Teresa Kok, the latter would still win the seat.
“Even if we put Ku Nan in Seputeh but the one who will win it is Teresa Kok. But he is now the Federal Territories Minister because he still has a seat in the city area,” Zahid said during his speech while officiating the Bukit Bintang Umno meet today.
The deputy prime minister explained that federal seats like Bukit Bintang and Seputeh are of an urban Chinese majority voter base that is hard for Umno to penetrate.
“Like in Bukit Bintang, it is a fact that is a Chinese majority (seat). Urbanisation has happened here,” Ahmad Zahid said.
The Bagan Datoh MP added that even though seats like Seputeh and Bukit Bintang cannot be won by Umno in the next general elections, the party machinery should still support the respective Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates.
“Parties should support anyone who represents Barisan Nasional. Even in Bukit Bintang, even though there is no future. The seat will confirm go to someone else,” Zahid added.
He also pointed out that the ruling BN has only won four urban seats nationwide, including Johor Baru, Setiawangsa, Titiwangsa and Putrajaya.
Tengku Adnan is the current incumbent of the Putrajaya parliamentary seat.
The Seputeh and Bukit Bintang seats are traditionally contested by candidates from BN component party MCA.
Kok retained her Seputeh seat in the 13th general elections with a whopping 51,552-vote majority, while DAP’s Fong Kui Lun retained Bukit Bintang with a majority of 19,399 votes.
* Note: An earlier version of this story erroneously reported the number of urban seats BN won. Wangsa Maju is a PKR seat. It has since been corrected.
