PONTIAN, Nov 8 ― As the battle for the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat heats up, candidates from two major political coalitions express hopes for a healthy competition.
Both Karmaine Sardini of Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng from Barisan Nasional (BN) have agreed not to spread fake news and politicise sensitive issues during the campaign period.
According to Karmaine, 66, the low prices of commodity was among the issues that were being politicised too often by certain parties merely to gain the people's support and win the by-election.
“Stop talking about the commodity prices as the government has announced that that the crude palm oil prices will remain stable.
“The PH government will always strive to ensure the interests and wFell-being of not only the people in Tanjung Piai but also all Malaysians are taken care of,” he said when met during a walkabout at the PH district polling centres in Telok Kerang near here today.
Asked on his campaign strategies, Karmaine said he had a different approach in addressing local issues.
“Each candidate has their own strategies. On my side, we will go down to the ground to campaign door-to-door to get to know voters better,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wee said all parties should avoid making slanderous remarks against the contesting candidates. They should instead, make full use of the campaign period to reach out to as many voters as possible.
“…we must be responsible and in this constituency, we must campaign wisely and uphold the (principle of) democracy. We should focus on helping the people and listening to their problems,” he said.
It will be an interesting clash between the two political heavyweights as both of them have lost in the last 14th general election (GE14) by a thin majority.
Wee previously the member of Parliament for Tanjung Piai for two terms from 2008 lost the seat to Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik by 524 votes in a three-cornered fight in GE14.
While Karmaine contested in the Pontian parliamentary seat, but lost to BN’s Datuk Ahmad Maslan by only 833 vote.
Karmaine said he decided to contest in the by-election because he wanted to help the people in the Tanjung Piai constituency.
“As a local candidate, my main focus is to resolve problems faced by the Tanjung Piai communities,” said Karmaine.
As for Wee, he attributed his good ties with the people in Tanjung Piai as a reason to recontest.
The polling for the by-election is set on November 16 following the death of Dr Md Farid, 42, on September 21 due to heart complications.
It is seeing a six-cornered fight involving Karmaine, Wee, Wendy Subramaniam (Gerakan), Datuk Dr Ir Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz of Barisan Jemaah Islamiah (Berjasa) and two independent candidates namely Dr Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar. ― Bernama
