BUKIT MERTAJAM: Penang MCA is contesting Batu Kawan for the first time since the seat was created in 2004.
Batu Kawan MCA chief Datuk Tan Lee Huat will be in a five-cornered fight featuring big names like Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow (PH) and former Bukit Tengah assemblyman Ong Chin Wen.
Ong is contesting under the Parti Warisan ticket this time and others in the fray are Wong Chia Zhen (PN) and Lee Ah Liang (Parti Rakyat Malaysia).
Ong, 45, is a lawyer and is also Warisan’s state secretary.
Wong, 37, who is the youngest of the pack, is a businessman whereas Lee, 75, who is the oldest candidate, is a retired teacher.
It was a true muhibah moment as Tan was accompanied by his proposer Batu Kawan Umno chief Datuk Mohd Noor Ahmad, 62, and seconder Batu Kawan MIC chief S. Ramalingam, 72, at the Seberang Prai vocational college nomination centre in Bukit Mertajam.
"We are all leaders from BN and we work together harmoniously. We support each other since day one and there was no problem working with each other," Tan said.
There was a slight hiccup at the nomination centre when Tan, his proposer and seconder were asked to change their attire.
However, Batu Kawan returning officer Dr Saira Banu Mohamed Rejab later explained that candidates are allowed to wear their party’s shirt during nomination day but not during polling day.
Chow, who just recovered from Covid-19, said he would focus on the traffic congestion, water supply as well as foreign worker hostel issues in Batu Kawan.
After incumbent Kasthuriraani Patto declined to re-contest, Chow, who is state Pakatan Harapan chairman, was sent across the channel to defend his party’s stranglehold on the seat, first won by Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P. Ramasamy in 2008 who beat Gerakan’s Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.
That seat was traditionally contested by Gerakan but Gerakan left Barisan in 2018.
As of Sept 15, Batu Kawan had 88,864 voters, with the Chinese making up 53.9% or 47,944 voters.
There are also 20,393 Malay voters and 19,765 Indians, while the other 762 are of other races.
There are 13 parliamentary seats up for grabs in Penang – six on the island and seven on the mainland.
Before the dissolution of Parliament on Oct 10, Pakatan held 10 seats, with DAP having seven and PKR three. Perikatan and Barisan have two and one seats respectively.
