Kit Siang to Defend Iskandar Puteri (Previously Gelang Patah)

1626
- Advertisement - [resads_adspot id="2"]

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang will contest the Iskandar Puteri parliamentary seat in GE14, said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

Ibrahim Isa

Guan Eng said at a dinner in Skudai last night that the DAP advisor had decided to stay put and defend the constituency, which was previously named Gelang Patah.

Earlier, it was speculated that Kit Siang would to take on Tan Sri Shahrir Samad in a fight for the Johor Baru parliamentary seat.

The 77-year-old veteran DAP politician will face Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Jason Teoh Sew Hock.

Iskandar Puteri is the largest constituency in Johor and the second biggest in the country in terms of voters.

In 2013, Iskandar Puteri was the battleground for the then Pakatan Rakyat’s Opposition assault in Johor.

The population of Gelang Patah is estimated to be about 600,000 after an increase of 150,000 in the last five years since 2013.

The constituency currently has about 138,000 voters and consists of the Skudai and Kota Iskandar state seats.

In the 2013 general election, BN’s Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Othman, the then Johor mentri besar, lost the seat to Kit Siang who won with a whopping 14,762 vote majority.

Kit Siang has contested in every general election since 1969, losing only once when he contested the Bukit Bendera parliamentary seat in 1999.

He has contested seven seats in his political career, in Melaka, Penang, Perak and, in Johor in 2013.

DAP is contesting a total of six parliamentary and 14 state seats in Johor.