Khir : there are some tough seats
Malaysiakini.com
Mar 07, 2008
Syed Jaymal Zahiid 

Selangor BN and Umno chief Khir Toyo is confident that his party will maintain its grip on the state though he admitted that some traditionally strong seats will face tougher battles.
MCPX

“We are confident of winning even though in the beginning we had trouble moving our election machineries effectively,” he told malaysiakini.

khir toyo interview 121207 seriousThe confident Khir said he only considered the Sungai Pinang state seat as the tough fight. Khir said there is only a “50-50 chance of wresting the seat” from DAP’s Teng Chang Kim who won it by 3,613 majority in the 2004 polls.

To do this, BN has fielded wealthy businessman Song Kee Chai from MCA. Song, being a local and a veteran politician, will inject some hope into winning the seat, said Khir.

“As far as Selangor is concerned, this is the only tough fight we are facing. We will however push for a BN victory and fight until the end,” stressed Khir.

As for other seats that Khir considered as tough, he did not reveal the names of the constituencies but considering the sentiments on the ground, Malaysiakini believes that the seats are Teratai, Batu Caves and Sekinchan respectively.

In the 2004 polls, BN’s V Jagarasah won by a thin majority of 1, 781 votes against PKR’s Kamarul Baharin Abbas. For this year’s elections, the former has been replaced by T Mohan.

Batu Caves is also a battleground for a three corner contest. Mohan will be facing PKR’s young intellectual Amirudin Shari and also independent candidate Azmi Hussain.

BN also won by a thin majority for the Teratai seat in last elections. Gerakan’s Yap Soo Sun only won by 2,241 majority votes against DAP’s  Khong Chee Seng.

This polls however saw both parties replacing these candidates with new faces. For BN, it would Gerakan’s Lum Weng Keong and his opponent is Lee Ying Ha from DAP.

But both these battles cannot be compared to the contest that BN will face for the Sekinchan seat. Previous polls saw BN’s Chia Chim Lem winning by a razor-thin margin on 334 votes against DAP’s Ng Suee Lim.

A newcomer, Puah Boon Choon has been fielded as the BN candidate this time and he will be facing DAP’s Ng again.

However when asked about these seats, Khir said, “we are 65 percent sure of winning Selangor already.”

Zero allocation for opposition

Khir was also adamant not to back down despite opposition criticism on his statement that no state fund would be given to opposition state representatives.

“Why should we? Look at Kelantan. No allocation was given to the opposition (BN) there and we will do exactly the same,” he said.

Asked if he thought it was unethical to do so, Khir did not reply but said that “just like what PAS is doing in Kelantan, we will only prioritise state representatives who are BN members.”

Khir’s statement, issued yesterday and was reported in the English newspaper the Star, caused an uproar among opposition members with many of them calling on voters to ‘oust’ the BN party from Selangor.

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