GEORGE TOWN, Aug 3 — The spread of a video on social media where Gerakan president Datuk Dominic Lau was asked to leave a PAS mega ceramah event by Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang on Tuesday was all a show to gain sympathy votes, said Penang Amanah vice-chairman Azrul Mahathir Aziz.
The incumbent Bayan Lepas assemblyman, who is going up against Lau in the state elections this August 12, said it was obvious that it was all an act.
“It is only an act for Dominic to get sympathy votes from non-Malays while on the other hand, PAS wanted to appease its grassroots support base by showing that they are still ‘angry’ with Dominic for contesting in a traditionally PAS seat,” he said during a press conference after a ceramah kelompok at Balai Sepakat in Kampung Masjid, Teluk Kumbar.
He said there are still Malay PAS supporters who are unhappy that the Islamist party had given the seat to its Perikatan Nasional ally, Gerakan, so they had to put up an act to appease them.
“It was only a ploy to win back support, they want to show that PAS does not agree with Dominic contesting here and they want to distance themselves from the decision,” he said.
He said most of the non-Malays in the constituency are strong Pakatan Harapan (PH) supporters so maybe Lau is playing the sympathy card to win them over.
On Tuesday night, Lau had attempted to attend a PAS ceramah in Sungai Dua here which was attended by Hadi but he was told to leave before he got to meet Hadi.
Yesterday, in response to reports of him being asked to leave, Lau said he had only wanted to meet Hadi while the latter was in Penang but that the ceramah had started so he could not speak to him.
Azrul is defending his seat against Lau in a straight fight.
Azrul won the Bayan Lepas seat with a majority of 5,245 votes in 2018, winning a seat that was previously a Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold.
The Bayan Lepas electorate in 2018 comprised Malays (64.4 per cent), Chinese (29.8 per cent), Indians (5.2 per cent) and others (0.4 per cent).
