Barisan Nasional (BN) has confirmed former top police officer Ramli Mohd Noor as its pick to contest the Jan 26 Cameron Highlands by-election.
Citing a source, Malaysiakini reported that this was decided in a meeting last night and that one of the reasons MIC was not contesting the seat was due to funds needed to woo both the Malay and Orang Asli voters.
MIC’s traditional seat, the constituency comprises 22 per cent Orang Asli voters and 34 per cent Malays, Chinese 30 per cent and Indians 15 per cent.
Ramli belongs to the Semai tribe, which forms the bulk of the Orang Asli communities there.
Speculation had been rife that BN would field Ramli, who in 2015 became the highest-ranking Orang Asli police officer in the nation’s history, to woo the Orang Asli voting bloc.
The seat was won in the 14th general election by the MIC’s C Sivarraajh with a slim 597-vote majority.
However, it was declared vacant by the Election Court in November last year, after determining that corrupt practices led to the BN’s win.