Saturday April 13, 2013

GE13: Hee giving up Jelapang seat

IPOH: Datuk Hee Yit Foong (pic) has confirmed speculation that she will not defend her Jelapang state seat at the 13th general election (GE13).

Pledging to give her support to the Barisan Nasional, Hee did not state any reason for her withdrawal.

“I will help campaign for the Barisan candidate,” she said when contacted.

Hee, who won the seat under a DAP ticket in 2008, quit the party the following year to become a Barisan-friendly Independent.

She was joined by two PKR assemblymen Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang) and Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) who did likewise.

The move led to the collapse of the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government.

Hee hoped that Barisan would field a candidate who was “born and bred here”.

“The constituents have voiced this wish. I will not interfere with the candidacy but I hope that the Barisan leadership will listen to the people,” she added.

Meanwhile, Jamaluddin announ-ced yesterday that he would contest as an Independent if he was not picked by the Barisan to defend the Behrang seat.

The 57-year-old said he hoped to be Barisan's choice as he was confident of winning by at least 5,000 votes against a PKR candidate.

“However if there is a three-cornered fight involving a Barisan candidate, it will be tough,” he said after collecting a nomination form from the state election commission office here.

At the 2008 general election, Jamaluddin polled 6,771 votes to defeat MIC's Datuk M. Ramasamy with a 1,027-vote majority.

Speculation is rife that PKR would field Brig-Gen (Rtd) Datuk Abdul Hadi Al-Khatab as its candidate in Behrang.

Jamaluddin admitted that his constituents had rejected him when he quit PKR.

“But the people, especially the Chinese, have accepted me back after seeing me work hard,'' he claimed.

Osman could not be reached for comments.

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

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