JOHOR BARU, April 23 — The Johor Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership has dropped Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi as the coalition’s 14th general election (GE14) candidate in Johor.
The 60-year-old Special Affairs Department (JASA) director-general was not selected to contest in the Batu Pahat federal seat, where he is also the division’s Umno chief.
The BN candidate for Batu Pahat was today announced by Johor BN chief Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin as Haliza Abdullah, his Umno division’s Wanita chief.
Earlier last week, there was speculation within Johor Umno that Puad be dropped as candidate and might consider becoming an independent candidate.
Yesterday, a letter purportedly penned by Puad went viral stating that he will resign as the Special Affairs Department director-general on April 26 to contest as an independent candidate for the Batu Pahat federal seat and Senggarang state seat.
He claimed that he will challenge Umno’s damaged system of selecting its GE14 candidates.
Puad also alleged that that Haliza was not a suitable candidate due to her personal problems and non-performance for the Umno division.
In the 2013 general election, Puad lost to PKR candidate Mohd Idris Jusi by 1,732 votes.
The announcement by Khaled also saw Umno contesting 16 parliamentary and 35 state seats; MCA eight parliamentary and 15 state seats; MIC one parliamentary and four state seats; and Gerakan one parliament and two state seats.
Johor BN will will field 37 new faces in five parliamentary and 32 state seats.
