Johor Umno chief Hasni Mohammad has made a passing dig at the age of Bersatu’s candidate for the Tanjung Piai by-election.
“Their candidate (Karmaine Sardini) is 66, going to be 67 next year, hopefully, there won’t be another by-election. Elections are tiring,” Hasni said.
He was speaking at the launch of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) machinery for the by-election today.
The Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat in Johor fell vacant following the death of its incumbent, former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr Md Farid Md Rafik.
Karmaine’s candidacy was announced by Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin at an event in Tanjung Piai earlier today.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) is confident that its candidate has the necessary criteria that appeal to voters in the constituency.
Muhyiddin said besides being a local, Karmaine has good academic qualification and family background.
“The PH leadership has scrutinised the list of names that was submitted and decided that Karmaine is the most suitable candidate.
Karmaine, the Tanjung Piai Bersatu chief, Karmaine, was a former teacher at SMK Teluk Kerang in Tanjung Piai before continuing his studies in architecture.
He later served as an architect in the Kuala Lumpur City Hall from 1980 to 2000.
Karmaine was also the former Tanjung Piai Umno division treasurer before leaving the party.
He once contested as Bersatu candidate during the last general election in the Pontian parliament where he lost to incumbent Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan by just 833 votes.
The Johor state government also appointed him as a board of director member at Yayasan Pelajaran Johor earlier this year.
Muhyiddin said it would be advantageous for the voters to choose Karmaine considering that PH is the government at the Federal and state level.
“It is logical for the voters to choose PH so that we can continue to help the people and bring development to the area. Why choose the opposition when they can’t do much?” said Muhyiddin.
However, he said PH does not take the challenge in the by-election lightly.
“We are not concerned about who our opponent would be, but we don’t want to be overconfident. We are working hard and engaging the voters to find out their problems and issues because in an election, the voter is king,” said Muhyiddin.
He also said that he is satisfied with the preparation made by PH for next month’s by-election.
“Our machinery has been mobilised over a month ago and preparations have been made. We need to ensure that everything goes along smoothly.
“We have also taken notice of the voting districts (PDM) that we lost in the last general election and we will give more focus on them. We want to defend the PDM we won and win those that we lost,” said Muhyiddin.
In the 14th General Election, Dr Md Farid defeated Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng, who was the incumbent, and Nordin Othman of Pas with a majority of 524 votes.
Karmaine is also an imam.
BN was scheduled to announce their candidate today as well, but Hasni said this was a bluff.
“They (Pakatan Harapan) were fooled by us. They wanted to announce on the 30th, but when they heard that we were going to announce at 4pm (today), they announced first at 2pm.
“So, they were defeated, we will not be announcing our candidate today,” he said.
Meanwhile, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi showed deference to the late Farid.
After giving salutations to all the BN leaders present at the launch, Zahid called for a short prayer for Farid and others who have passed away.
“Farid passed away too young, a doctor, medical expert is gone. He was a good man, that was his track record.
“But God willing, our candidate will be better than the dearly departed,” the BN chairperson said.
Zahid said the BN candidate will also be a local and promised an announcement on the matter would be made soon.
In the 14th general election, MCA’s Wee Jeck Seng lost the seat by just 524 votes.
However, there have been calls for Umno to contest the seat instead.
Muhyiddin said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will to go down to Tanjung Piai to campaign on Oct 31 and Nov 8.
Gerakan, which will also join in the fray, said it will name its candidate tomorrow.