GE14: Noh gives formula to recapture Selangor
By Fadzillah Aishah Ismail
TANJONG KARANG, May 3 (Bernama) -- "No retreat, no surrender, no 'talak tiga' (no irrevocable third pronouncement of divorce)."
These three formulas were the injections of motivations from Selangor Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Tan Sri Noh Omar to leaders and party members that their struggle in the 14th General Election (GE14) was a 'last chance' to recapture Selangor.
With five days to go in the GE14 campaign, Noh pointed out that enough was enough that the administration of the state was dominated by the 'caca merba' (mixed) opposition coalition for the past 10 years and likened to weird couples who were 'still sleeping at home despite being divorced'.
"Why was it described as such? This was because three state executive councillors from PAS were still in the state government administration despite the fact that the party has decided to severe political co-operation with Parti Keadilan Rakyat last year, and before that with the DAP."
According to Noh, it was time that the Selangor government's mandate be restored to BN which had proven to be able to provide better services to the people of the state.
"We want to tell the people of Selangor if they want to 'divorce' (from BN) it should suffice with the second pronouncement (Talak Dua). (BN lost in Selangor in GE12 and GE13).
"We are not dreaming loftily but in my calculations, god willing, we will be able to have enough seats to recapture Selangor in GE14, namely, at least 30 state seats. I don't aspire that we get two-thirds. What's importance is that BN wins," he told Bernama.
Selangor had a composition of 56 state seats, namely DAP and PKR, each held 14 seats, PAS and BN, respectively, 12 seats each while Amanah and Independent two seats each.
Clearly, Noh, who is also Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister, was not talking empty talks following the selection of Selangor BN candidates for GE14 on May 9, where 56 new faces from 78 parliamentary and state seats were being fielded by BN.
The rest were the five incumbent candidates for the parliamentary seats including Noh, nine incumbent state seat representatives and four candidates who were recycled after losing in GE13.
He was confident BN Selangor would be able to add another five parliamentary seats as well as retaining the five existing (Parliamentary) seats, in this general election.
GE14 also witnessed all the candidates comprising locals who had undergone quite a tight selection screening, unlike GE13 when the BN gambled on direct candidate Datuk Zulkifli Noordin in the Shah Alam Parliament. He lost to the incumbent Khalid Abd Samad from PAS (now Amanah) with a large majority votes of 10,939 votes.
-- BERNAMA
