BN confident of winning back Hutan Melintang seat
SERDANG, March 18 (Bernama) -- The Barisan Nasional (BN) is confident of recapturing the Hutan Melintang state seat in the 14th general election (GE14), said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The BN deputy chairman said this was because the effort to recapture the seat had been aggressively pursued.
"Support for BN from Indian, Chinese and Malay voters in Hutan Melintang and the Bagan Datuk parliamentary constituency as a whole is on the increase .
"This is very important to ensure that BN wins Bagan Datuk with a bigger majority in GE14," he told reporters after officiating the TN50 @ Bagan Datuk Aspiration Ceremony at the Malaysia Agro-Exposition Park here today. It was attended by over 2,500 Bagan Datuk residents.
In GE13, the BN candidate for Hutan Melintang R. Subramaniam from MIC lost to PKR's S.Kesavan by a margin of 1,240 votes. Ahmad Zahid, who is also Bagan Datuk Member of Parliament, said in the 13th general election, Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya won the Rungkup state seat with a majority of 613 votes while he won with a majority of 2,108 votes.
"In today's TN50 dialogue, I see many Chinese and Indian voters from the younger generation. They all work outside Bagan Datuk but I'm sure they will support me because some of them know me personally and know that the government and I are doing numerous development progammes for the common good," he said.
Earlier, he had joked with the Bagan Datuk residents that he would not contest in the general election at the age of 93, alluding to fomer prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who is now leading the opposition and is said will be contesting in GE14.
Ahmad Zahid added that he would continue to strive to provide the best service to the country and the Bagan Datuk area although the development benefits would only be fully felt in 2050.
--BERNAMA
