KOTA BHARU: Pas Youth is optimistic in gaining the support of young voters in the upcoming Port Dickson by-election following Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) failure to fulfil its 14th General Election manifesto.
Its vice chief, Ahmad Fadhli Shaari, said the party was confident in reducing PH’s majority.
He admitted that the constituency was not Pas’ stronghold, hence the chance of winning the by-election was slim following the party’s previous losses in all the state seats.
“Port Dickson is not Pas’ stronghold, but we decided to contest for the seat because we want to honour democracy and boost the election machinery at the parliament constituency.
“PH’s candidate (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) has a record of creating bad situation judging by the fact that its member of parliament (Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah) had resigned to pave the way for him to soar to greater heights.
“I think the people will determine whether such practice is good for the country or otherwise,” he said when contacted on Wednesday.
In GE14, Danyal Balagopal who contested under PKR banner won with a majority of 17,710 votes, defeating BN candidate Datuk V.S. Mogan and Pas’ Mahfuz Roslan.
PH fielded Anwar, who is PKR president-elect, as its candidate, while Pas placed its faith on Lieutenant Colonel (Rtd) Mohd Nazari Mokhtar. Five other people contested as independent candidates in the by-election, namely, Tan Sri Isa Samad, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Lau Seck Yan, Stevie Chan Keng Leong and Kan Chee Yuen.
Ahmad Fadhli based on this, he was optimistic that Pas would garner the support of youths in this by-election.