Street savvy Umno, PAS men in straight fight
(Bernama) – Two locals who are pitted against each other in the Kuala Besut by-election have promised to adopt a moderate and prudent approach to reach the voters in this Muslim enclave.
By and large, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Tengku Zaihan Che Ku Abd Rahman, 37, and PAS’ Azlan Yusuf, 48, will be attending religious programmes such as tazkirah (religious talks) in mosques and surau throughout the campaign.
The duo will break the fast with locals as they observe Ramadan – a period of prayer, fasting, charity-giving and self-accountability.
Without doubt the by-election where the BN is defending the seat is a duel between a street smart (Tengku Zaihan) and a street savy (Azlan).
The BN is banking its hope on Tengku Zaihan, an engineer with the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) based in Putrajaya who had once served the Kuala Besut District DID as district engineer for five years.
Hailed from Kampung Nail, Kuala Besut, Tengku Zaihan said although he was born with the honorific ‘Tengku’, he was a regular guy as he grew up among fishermen.
A graduate in civil engineering from Universiti Sains Malaysia, he has served the community as Kuala Besut district engineer and Seri Seratus Umno branch member.
Thanking the BN leadership for nominating him to stand in the by-election, he said, “It is my ardent hope that the voters will give the opportunity to me to serve them.
“If chosen, I will do my best to help them improve their livelihood,” he added.
Azlan’s popular with locals
On the other hand, Azlan of PAS is a self-made businessman who is fondly known as ‘Che Long’ by locals.
The choice of Azlan, who is Kuala Besut PAS treasurer, ended speculations that PAS would be fielding a well known religious teacher after it failed to wrest the seat from the BN through a woman candidate in the last general election.
Meanwhile, the two candidates filed their nomination papers for the by-election, scheduled for July 24, at the Rakan Muda Complex in Kuala Besut.
Only two names were announced as the official candidates by the Election Commission (EC) for the state seat which is holding the Terengganu state assembly in a limbo.
BN currently holds 16 state seats while Pakatan holds 15 in the state assembly.
In the event Pakatan wins Kuala Besut, it will effect a hung state assembly in Terengganu, which may trigger a statewide by-election to end the impasse.
The state seat fell vacant after its Umno assemblyman Dr A Rahman Mokhtar passed away last month due to cancer.
Earlier, thousands were seen gathered outside the nomination centre.
While Tengku Zaihan was accompanied buy BN deputy chairman Muhyiddin Yassin and secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor, Azlan was also accompanied by Pakatan bigwigs such as DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.
The by-election was necessitated by the death of assemblyman Dr A.Rahman Mokhtar of the BN of lung cancer on June 26.
He had won the seat with a 2,434 majority by beating Napisah Ismail of PAS in the general election on May 5.
Kuala Besut has 17,679 voters which is made up of 17,463 Malays, 125 Chinese and the rest other races.
