Sabotaging of candidates no longer seen in Terengganu
KUALA TERENGGANU, April 28 (Bernama) -- Incidents of sabotaging election candidates among Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters in Terengganu in the 14th General Election (GE14) are no longer widely reported.
The early scenario reflected by the BN workers somewhat differed from the situation in previous elections where the candidates who were expected to win were not picked by the people.
The presence of the incumbent Member of Parliament for Hulu Terengganu, Datuk Seri Jailani Johari since 7 am to give his support to all BN candidates in the Hulu Terengganu constituency clearly gave a major impact to BN.
In fact, his presence was greeted with loud applause by the approximately 12,000 supporters and he appeared to be very friendly with the candidates before the procession to the Hulu Terengganu Land and District Office began.
Jailani was dropped from the list of Terengganu candidates for GE14.
Besides Jailani, there were also three leaders who were frequently associated with the negative scenario to the extent that they were criticised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi openly recently and who appeared to be working together with the BN supporters today.
Former Member of Parliament for Dungun, Datuk Rosli Mat Hassan (who won in GE11 but lost in Ge13) was present to give his support to the candidates in the constituency including the candidate for the Parliamentary seat, Datuk Din Adam and Roslee Daud, who is the incumbent and BN candidate for Bukit Besi state seat.
In Kemaman, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said who was again nominated for the Kijal state seat joined the procession to the nomination centre at the Diamond Jubilee Hall of the Kemaman Municipal Council with the candidate for Chukai State seat Datuk Mohamed Awang Tera although Ahmad had previously issued a statement that Mohamed had turned coat and sabotaged the BN in GE13 resulting in the BN candidate for the seat to lose to PAS.
On April 22, Mohamed had held a media conference to explain various confusions that occurred and stated his loyalty to the party and such an act had been seen to improve the situation.
Three-cornered fights in the state involved three major parties namely the BN, PAS and PKR without involving any independent candidate.
Previously BN had won four Parliamentary seats, 17 State Assembly seats while PAS won in four Parliamentary and 14 State Assembly seats with the remaining one seat won by PKR.
Such a scenario was seen to be able to give an advantage to the BN which fielded a mixture of incumbents, new faces and those who would be making a comeback.
The presence of supporters too gave the early impression of the strength of the party and a Bernama survey revealed that only BN and PAS supporters were enthusiastic in carrying the party flags to the extent that they were at the nomination centre since early morning.
On the other hand, the PKR only involved not more than 40 people including the candidates and supporters.
In Besut, UMNO Supreme Council (MT) member Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh remained as the BN candidate for the Besut Parliamentary constituency who will be challenged by his own cousin, Datuk Ir Wan Nazari Wan Jusoh (PKR-PPBM), besides Dr Riduan Mohamad Nor from PAS.
-- BERNAMA
