SEKINCHAN, Aug 3 — Candidates representing Pakatan Harapan (Harapan) and Barisan Nasional (BN) in the northern part of Selangor are optimistic that they will be able to contribute to the coalition’s victory, despite the opposition parties’ perception of dominance in the upcoming state polls.
BN’s candidate, who is also the incumbent of the Sungai Air Tawar state seat, Datuk Rizam Ismail, said that, as a local, he is of the view that the excessive confidence shown by Perikatan Nasional (PN) to sweep all the seats in the northern part of Selangor, will backfire.
“I think PN is a bit overconfident and seems to forget the local sentiments who believe that local candidates understand (local) issues better and deserve to bring their voices and problems to a higher level.
“We are aware that the role and responsibility of an assemblyman is to draft policies and plans for the development of the state and the constituency he represents, and surely only local people have a better understanding of the constituency’s landscape,” he told Bernama.
Harapan candidate Ng Suee Lim, who is also the incumbent of the Sekinchan state seat, said that as a representative of the Harapan-BN coalition, he is confident of retaining the seat as long as all party members and machinery work together to approach the voters as a team.
Now that Harapan and BN collaborate as a team, he expressed confidence that they are capable of derailing PN’s revival of winning more seats after securing several parliamentary seats in the north of Selangor in the last general election (GE).
“With the state government administration’s track record as well as the offers contained in the Selangor manifesto, announced recently, I am confident that the people can make the best assessment before casting their ballots.
“In the last GE, Harapan and BH were competing against each other but for this upcoming polls, I am confident that Harapan and BN supporters will unite to support the candidate representing the Harapan-BN coalition in the spirit of maintaining the administration of the state government, in line with the Unity Government at the federal level,” he said.
Meanwhile, BN candidate Mohamad Khir Ramli, contesting the Sungai Burong state seat, believes that the Harapan-BN alliance will give additional strength to the party’s work at the grassroots level to maintain victory in the constituency.
“I am confident that we will win. Before this, even when our machinery moved separately it was still strong enough to compete. Surely, this ‘marriage’ of Harapan-BN will make us stronger in planning a strategy to attack the opposition. InsyaAllah we will be able to secure the Sungai Burong seat,” he said.
In the last GE, three parliamentary seats in the northern part of Selangor, namely Sabak Bernam, Sungai Besar and Tanjong Karang were captured by PN, with a majority of 5,056, 2,721 and 1,970 votes respectively.
— Bernama
