KUALA TERENGGANU: Centenarian Maimun Yusof might not have been able to raise the deposit needed to enter the race for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat, but she is already saving up for the 15th General Election.
“I am upset as I couldn’t contest this year as I don’t have the money, but Tok has already started saving up for the next election. That is also if God wills it and I am in good health,”
“This election is the best opportunity as I am already 100. If I was nominated, it would have been historic but what can I do. Fate had different things in store.”
“There are also friends who are disappointed that I am not contesting,” said the former independent candidate in GE12 and GE13 for Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat who is fondly called Tok Mun.
Maimun’s decision to contest the Kuala Terengganu seat in 2008 affected Parti Amanah Negara’s president Mohamad Sabu’s chances. The grandmother caused a split in the votes and shifted the ballots, contributing to BN candidate Datuk Razali Ismail’s marginal win with 628 votes.
And despite only reeling 685 votes in GE12, she re-entered the fray in 2013 and contested the same seat, only to lose her deposit. The seat fell to Terengganu Amanah chairperson Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad, who contested under a PAS ticket, while the grandmother received 182 votes.
“When Tok contested, no one gave me money. I used my savings to campaign and pay the RM10,000 deposit,” she told the New Straits Times Press when met in her house at Kampung Atas Tol, here today.
Maimun also reportedly spent RM60,000 in the previous two elections to become a candidate as well as for campaigning. Pictures of her riding her campaign bicycle hogged the covers of newspapers and news portals.
She admitted that she was excited to see posters and flags that were put up, egging her on to contest.
Asked if she would be casting her ballot in GE14, Maimun answered no. “I am not contesting…there is no reason why I should go out to vote… And I do not support PAS and BN,” she added.
She however acknowledged BN’s strength and that it would not be easy to defeat the coalition.
If Tok Mun had contested, she would have joined the ranks of nonagenarian Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The 93-year-old former prime minister, who came out of retirement last year to lead opposition party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia is also on a mission to break his personal records.
He is contesting in Langkawi in a three-cornered fight against BN’s Datuk Nawawi Ahmad and PAS’s Zubir Ahmad.