BN must put up stiff fight to win three state seats in Arau
ARAU, April 18 (Bernama) -- Barisan Nasional (BN) is expected to easily defend the Arau parliamentary seat in the 14th general election (GE14), but will have to put up a stiff fight to win three state seats in the parliamentary constituency.
BN are quite comfortable in Pauh and Tambun Tulang after winning the state seats in the GE12 and retaining them in GE13, but the Guar Sanji, Simpang Empat and Sanglang state seats seemed to be quite challenging for the coalition.
In GE13, BN won only with 927-vote majority in Guar Sanji, and 85-vote majority in Simpang Empat, while Sanglang had been held by PAS since GE12.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azlan Man, who contested for the first time in Pauh in 2013, defeated PAS' Idris Yaacob with a majority of 1,382 votes, while in Tambun Tulang, Datuk Ismail Kassim secured 5,286 votes to defeat Azhar Ameir of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
For the Sanglang state seat, the competition between BN and PAS is expected to be the most intense. PAS defeated BN with a 47-vote majority in 2008 and defended it again in 2013 with only a majority of 121 votes.
PAS is expected to retain Perlis PAS Commissioner Mohd Shukri Ramli as its candidate in Sanglang.
In Arau, the influence of incumbent Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim, who is also the Perlis Umno Liaison Committee Chairman and Arau Umno Division Chief, had remained strong.
In the GE13, Shahidan, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, won the Arau parliamentary seat with a majority of 1,371 votes after securing 19,376 votes over the late Datuk Dr Haron Din of PAS who garnered 18,005 votes.
In the GE12, Ismail, who is also Shahidan's younger brother, won with only a 300-vote majority over Haron.
Perlis UMNO veteran Datuk Tengku Aziz Tengku Jaafar said BN cannot afford to make a mistake in selecting the candidates, especially to contest Sanglang, Guar Sanji and Simpang Empat state seats if they really wished to win.
The voters' preference and sentiment for local-born candidates are very strong. They are more comfortable with local candidates, rather than parachute candidates," said the former Perlis State Assembly Speaker.
He said votes who did not like BN candidates were most likely to vote for the opposition's candidates as what happened in Sanglang in 2008 and 2013, which caused BN to lose the seat even though PAS' influence was not that strong in the constituency.
Hence, he said BN should take into account the needs of the voters and party supporters if they want to win comfortably in the GE14, including to wrest back the Sanglang state seat.
-- BERNAMA
