Pakatan candidates Gooi Hsiao Leung (red cap), Goh Choon Aik (white cap) and Sundarajoo arriving at Dewan Al-Azim, Kolej Vokasional in Seberang Prai. — Photos: LIM BENG TATT and ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star
Election season has kicked into top gear, with most candidates staging hustings as soon as the campaign period started.
In Penang, 95 candidates will be vying for 40 state seats, with 29 of them seeing straight fights.
There are three-cornered tussles for seven seats while four seats will have four-cornered battles.
Perikatan Nasional, comprising PAS, Bersatu and Gerakan, will contest in all 40 seats.
Pakatan Harapan consisting of DAP, PKR and Amanah, is contesting 34 seats while Barisan Nasional’s Umno is eyeing six seats.
Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) is contending in five seats, Muda is contesting three seats and Penang Front Party, two.
There are five Independents.
All eyes will be on the battle between Perikatan and the Pakatan-Barisan pact, as candidates from both sides will be squaring off against each other in all 40 seats.
The following are some of the interesting match-ups in Penang.
N02 Bertam
It is set to be a keenly contested match as both candidates are big names in the Penang political scene.
Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican is Umno’s supreme council member while Perikatan Nasional’s incumbent Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq is Perikatan election director in Penang.
Bertam candidates Reezal Merican (left) and Khaliq Mehtab greeting each other after nominations at Dewan Milenium in Kepala Batas.
In the 15th General Election (GE15) last year, Reezal Merican lost the Kepala Batas parliamentary seat which was long considered a secure bastion for Barisan.
He had won the seat twice prior to his shock defeat to Penang PAS Muslimat deputy chief Dr Siti Mastura Muhammad.
With Bertam being one of three state seats under Kepala Batas, Reezal Merican will surely be out to avenge his GE15 defeat.
On the other hand, Khaliq Mehtab from Bersatu is still sore over how he was kicked out of the Penang state assembly under the anti-hopping law.
He “lost” the seat after his party left Pakatan Harapan, following the Sheraton Move in February 2020, based on the anti-hopping provision in Article 14A of the state constitution.
In the 2018 state election, Khaliq Mehtab polled 6,485 votes and narrowly beat his closest rival Shariful Azhar Othman from Barisan, who received 6,268 votes. A third contender from PAS, Moktar Ramly, earned 2,986 votes.
N09 Bagan Dalam
The simmering feud has boiled over, as could be seen at Dewan Dato Haji Ahmad Badawi, a nomination centre in Butterworth.
Incumbent Satees Muniandy, who was not re-nominated by DAP to contest the seat, refused to shake hands with K. Kumaran, who had been picked by the party.
Satees, who is contesting as an Independent − using a tree logo − urged voters to choose wisely and take his past performance into consideration.
He said he had served his constituency well in the past five years, adding that he was familiar with local challenges.
(From left to right) Bagan Dalam candidates Kumaran, Jayaraman, Satees and Rajasakanan.
Kumaran, a Bagan Dalam local, served the Bagan parliamentary service centre for four years.
“I know all the areas well and the issues that need to be addressed,” he said.
Other candidates are Penang Front Party’s S. Rajasakanan and Perikatan’s K. Jayaraman, from Dewan Himpunan Pendukung PAS (also known as PAS Supporter’s Assembly).
Expect more hostility as the campaign gets underway.
During the last state election in 2018, Satees polled 10,701 votes to beat Barisan’s Dhinagaran Jayabalan (3,918 votes), Malaysian United Party’s Teoh Uat Lye (51 votes), PRM’s Teoh Huck Ping (45 votes) and PFP’s Jasper Ooi Zong Han (36 votes) in a five-cornered battle.
N16 Perai
Expect another fiercely contested battle in this seat.
At the nomination centre at Dewan Al-Azim of Kolej Vokasional in Seberang Prai, former DAP’s Seberang Prai city councillor David Marshel snubbed a handshake from Pakatan candidate Datuk Seri S. Sundarajoo.
Marshel, contesting as an Independent, said: “This is not a friendly contest. I wouldn’t want to shake hands with someone who had ‘stabbed our backs’.”
Marshel was still fuming that his mentor, three-term Perai assemblyman Dr P. Ramasamy, was dropped by DAP in favour of Sundarajoo.
Marshel said that as councillor, he had resolved many issues, especially regarding floods, hawkers’ licences, traders and traffic problems in Perai.
“These will carry me through,” he said.
Sundarajoo, a former senior management employee of a housing developer, said he was there to serve the party and the community.
“I was from a poor family, so I understand the vicissitudes of the poor and downtrodden.
“If elected, I aim to resolve some long outstanding issues in Perai within a year.
“Some of these could have been solved long ago,” he added.
Also in the four-cornered fight for Perai are Muda’s Vikneswary Harikrishnan and Perikatan’s Sivasuntaram Rajalinggam.
In the 2018 state election, Ramasamy polled 11,243 votes in a six-cornered battle.
Coming in second was Barisan’s Suresh Muniandy (2,194 votes) followed by Penang Front Party’s Ooi Khar Giap (104 votes), PRM’s Samuganathan Muniandy (37 votes), People’s Alternative Party’s Asoghan Govindaraju (33 votes) and Independent Kumary Retnam (23 votes).
N38 Bayan Lepas
It will be interesting to see how Perikatan Nasional’s Datuk Dr Dominic Lau Hoe Chai fares against Pakatan Harapan’s incumbent Azrul Mahathir Aziz in this semi-urban seat that has more than 60% Malay voters.
Days before nomination, PAS grassroots reportedly protested against his candidacy in this Malay-majority constituency.
The fundamentalist Islamic party was said to be upset at not being allowed to contest, claiming that it had been doing the groundwork for years and would not accept a “parachute” candidate.
Perikatan’s Lau (left), who is also Gerakan president, will face Pakatan’s incumbent Azrul Mahathir in Bayan Lepas.
Lau, who is Gerakan president, said he was confident of getting support from all the component parties, including PAS, throughout the campaign period.
He said he knew the challenges ahead in winning the hearts of the locals.
“As a Perikatan candidate, I am here to win the mandate from all races,” he added.
Azrul Mahathir, of Amanah, said he was taken aback when Lau was announced as Perikatan’s candidate for the seat.
He urged Pakatan supporters not to take the contest lightly as he would be facing a party president.
Azrul polled 12,504 votes in the 2018 state election, beating Barisan Nasional’s Rusli Hashim (7,259 votes) and PAS’ Zarina Shinta Madar (2,497 votes).
N36 Pantai Jerejak
Interestingly, the oldest and youngest candidates in Penang are contesting this seat, which will see a four-cornered tussle.
Muda’s candidate Priyankaa Loh, is the youngest at 27.
A fresh face in politics, Loh believes her youth will fuel her ambition to uplift the underprivileged and improve the quality of education.
Loh, a childhood education diploma holder, has organised free tuition for underprivileged students in Penang.
Loh is the youngest candidate in Penang while Ravinder is oldest. Both are contesting the Pantai Jerejak seat.
Raised in Bagan on the mainland, the tuition teacher is fluent in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin, Hokkien and Tamil.
On the opposite end of the age spectrum is PRM’s candidate Ravinder Singh, 81.
The retired educator believes he has an added advantage.
The PRM deputy president had contested in the Bayan Baru parliamentary seat in GE15 but lost in the six-cornered fight.
He said he was looking forward to campaigning with the help of a small group.
He was a secondary school senior assistant and lecturer at a college in Sungai Petani before his retirement in 1993.
He then pursued a law degree and has been a Consumers Association of Penang activist for the past 20 years.
The other candidates are Fahmi Zainol (Pakatan) and Oh Tong Keong (Perikatan).
The seat was previously held by Pakatan’s Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who secured 14,014 votes in the 2018 state election.
His opponents then were Oh, who represented Barisan and received 3,298 votes, PAS’ Mohd Farhan Yusri (1,670 votes) and Malaysian United Party’s Yim Boon Leong (97 votes).
