BATU KAWAN: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) will not allow other component parties of Pakatan Harapan (PH) to contest in the Semenyih by-election.
Its secretary general Senator Datuk Marzuki Yahya said it was decided in the PH presidential council meeting that Bersatu candidate will contest in the seat.
“There is no question who will contest there as PH has already decided that a candidate from Bersatu will, and we target a bigger majority win compared to the 14th General Election (GE14).
“We will announce the candidate soon, before the nomination date and are confident the win will be for us while expecting over 60 per cent voters to come out to cast their vote on March 2,” he said at a press conference today.
He was speaking to the press after receiving over a hundred new members’ applications to join the party at Bandar Cassia here.
The Semenyih seat fell vacant following the death of assemblyman Bakhtiar Mohd Nor on Jan 11 from a heart attack. He was 57.
In the 14th General Election, Bakhtiar defeated candidates from BN, PAS and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) in a four-cornered fight, with a majority of 8,964 votes. He garnered 23, 428 votes.
Meanwhile Marzuki, who is also the Deputy Foreign Minister, said that the two-way discussion between Malaysia and Singapore on airspace and port limitation issues showed positive developments.
“Last week we discussed with representatives from Singapore who came to Wisma Putra and the outcome was positive.
“The discussion will continue on a date yet to be fixed, with possibly having it in Singapore,” he said.