AMPANG, Aug 20 — Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) is planning to run in a total of 14 seats in the 15th general election — half will be for Parliament while the other seven will be in states.
Its president-designate Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin told a news conference here this afternoon that the pro-Barisan Nasional party’s plan is to defend all the seats currently held by its members who had won them under other political party banners in Election 2018.
“We’re not asking for more than the seats we already have. We are going to focus on them. We are experienced leaders but the party is new and now we have a short time before facing the election so we focus only on the seats we already have.
“So seven state seats and seven parliamentary seats,” she said after kicking off the party’s political tour to meet voters at Pangsapuri Seri Intan here.
Zuraida said PBM has started its nationwide tour in three states — Perak, Selangor and Johor — to bolster voter support in the constituencies where they are the incumbents.
The party is currently known to only control three federal seats and five state seats at present.
Zuraida is the incumbent Ampang MP while PBM president Larry S’ng is the incumbent for Julau, and Steven Choong for Tebrau. All three previously won their parliamentary seats on PKR’s ticket.
The five state seats under PBM control total three in Perak and two in Selangor.
For Selangor, the seats are held by Haniza Talha (Lembah Jaya), and Dr Daroyah Alwi (Sementa) who won them under PKR in the last election.
The Perak seats are held by A. Sivasubramaniam (Buntong), Leong Cheok Keng (Malim Nawar) and Paul Yong (Tronoh). Sivasubramaniam and Yong were previously from DAP while Leong was formerly from PKR.
Zuraida did not disclose the identities of four other parliamentary constituencies and two state constituencies in PBM’s election plans.
PBM was originally the Sarawak Workers Party before the Registrar of Societies approved a name change last October.
The party recently applied to join the BN coalition as a component member, together with five other parties but has yet to be accepted.
Zuraida told reporters today that she accepts BN’s decision to study their applications in greater detail.
“I support that decision because the issue of coalition and the upcoming election does require more in-depth discussion so that all strategies can be combined and harmonised. So that is their intention to refine.
“So I am waiting for them to call for a meeting to outline what needs to be presented and so on,” she said.
