JOHOR BARU: Pang Hok Liong, the DAP contender in Segamat in the 2008 general election, has insisted that he is the rightful person to contest the seat.

Referring to speculation that Johor PKR chief Datuk Chua Jui Meng might have a go at Segamat, Pang said: “So far, I am the one to contest that seat. I came out from retirement for this after I heard that they wanted to trade it off to PKR.”

“As of now, Segamat remains a DAP seat,” he said, adding that he was a local boy who has been working the ground in Segamat since the 1980s.

Pang, who was the previous Johor DAP chief, also expressed shock over speculation that DAP had traded the seat with PKR.

However, he said that he would leave it to the DAP's top leadership.

Pang, who was a one-term Bekok state assemblyman after the 1990 elections, hoped that the DAP leadership would listen to the feedback from the grassroots before trading seats with PKR.

It is believed that DAP had given up the Segamat parliamentary and Johor Jaya state seats to PKR in exchange for Gelang Patah.

Chua, who has been jostling for the Gelang Patah seat with his DAP counterparts in Johor, is believed to have been persuaded by PKR leaders to contest in Segamat instead.

It is learnt that Chua has been keeping to himself after the party's top leadership announced that DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang will be contesting in Gelang Patah.

Party sources said that state and party leaders were trying to persuade Chua, whose other choice is Bakri, to pick another seat.

“But he has indicated in a recent meeting that he will not contest in the elections if he does not get the Bakri seat,” a party official said.

“We will not be surprised if he is sent to contest in another seat outside Johor,” the party official said.

For more election stories, please visit The Star's GE13 site

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