PONTIAN, Oct 29 — The Johor Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) welcomed Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) choice Karmaine Sardini for the Tanjung Piai parliamentary by-election, describing him as fitting the criteria needed for the seat.
Johor Amanah chief Aminolhuda Hassan said Karmaine’s candidacy was a positive move as he is not only a local, but considered a humble and also able leader who is expected to attract the Tanjung Piai voters.
“He (Karmaine) is generally capable and his positive personality will make him stand out as a potential winner here.
“Other than that, he is also known to be very involved with the community and has close ties with the candidates, knows the area well in addition to having a clear direction for Tanjung Piai’s development,” said Aminolhuda when contacted by Malay Mail today.
Aminolhuda, who is also the Johor Education, Human Resource, Science and Technology Committee chairman, said Amanah’s next plan was to introduce the candidate to the public in several programmes lined-up.
Meanwhile, PH Tanjung Piai by-election information and campaign chief Suhaizan Kaiat said PH’s candidate is popular personality and has many relatives in Teluk Kerang and Tanjung Piai who know him.
“He was a longtime political figure when he was in Umno and later joined with the late incumbent Tanjung Piai MP Datuk Dr Farid Md Rafik to establish the local Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) division,” he said.
Suhaizan, who is also the Johor Amanah vice-chief and also PH’s Kukup state legislative coordinator, said Karmaine is an influential figure and is known not only in the urban areas, but also in the interior of the parliamentary constituency.
He said previously it was difficult for PH to gain acceptance and support in the interior areas of Tanjung Piai.
“However, with Karmaine as the by-election candidate, we can hopefully win the hearts of the interior voters,” said Suhaizan, adding that he was optimistic that PH can achieve a win in the coming Tanjung Piai by-election.
Yesterday, PH announced 66-year-old Karmaine as their by-election candidate, while earlier today Gerakan has also named its deputy secretary-general Wendy Subramaniam as their candidate to contest the constituency.
The Election Commission has set November 2 as Nomination Day and November 16 as polling day for the Tanjung Piai parliamentary by-election.
The by-election was triggered after incumbent, Dr Md Farid died of heart complications on September 21.
Dr Md Farid won the seat in the previous general election after he defeated BN’s Wee Jeck Seng and PAS’ Nordin Othman in a three-way contest.
The Tanjung Piai constituency is a mixed seat comprising 57 per cent Malays, 42 per cent Chinese and 1 per cent Indians.
The seat has been traditionally contested by MCA and DAP since 2004. In 2018, DAP ceded the seat to Bersatu to contest under its PH campaign.