KUANTAN: Pahang Barisan Nasional will not take the challenge for the Pelangai state by-election lightly despite retaining the seat for a long time, says its chairman Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail.
"In any situation, we have and will continue to work hard... we can't take it for granted," he said when met after launching a book titled 'Budi Pujangga' and the Pahang Museum Education Club at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (P) Methodist here on Monday (Sept 11).
Apart from that, Wan Rosdy said based on the recent retreat programme in Janda Baik, Bentong, the state party leadership agreed to submit a list of candidates to the top leadership, with six potential names submitted for consideration, before being announced two or three days prior to the nomination day.
The Pelangai state constituency was the seat of former menteri besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob since 1986 and after he announced his retirement from politics last year, the seat was contested by Datuk Seri Johari Harun in the 15th general election (GE15).
Johari, 53, was among the 10 who died in a plane crash in Bandar Elmina, Shah Alam in Selangor on August 17 and accordingly, the Election Commission (EC) set the Pelangai by-election to be held on Oct 7, with Sept 23 as candidate nomination day while early voting will take place on Oct 3.
In GE15, Johari won with a majority of 4,048 votes, defeating Perikatan Nasional candidate Kasim Samat who received 3,260 votes, Pakatan Harapan
candidate Ahmed Wafiuddin Shamsuri with 2,031 votes while Pejuang candidate Isa Ahmad lost his deposit after getting only 64 votes.
Asked about Barisan's cooperation with Pakatan in the Pelangai by-election, Wan Rosdy is optimistic that they will get good support from Pakatan considering the spirit of the unity government.
"Cooperation with Pakatan Pahang has also existed since GE15 for the Tioman state seat," he said.
In GE15, voting for the Tioman state assembly could not take place on voting day, Nov 19, 2022 due to the death of Perikatan candidate Md Yunus
Ramli in the early hours of the same morning, causing it to be rescheduled for Dec 7 2022.
Pakatan then decided to give way to the Barisan candidate taking into account the agreement between the two parties to establish a government at the federal and state levels.- Bernama
