SEREMBAN: Khairy Jamaluddin will do well in his battle for the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat for Barisan Nasional as he is so welcome there, says Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.
The Barisan deputy chairman said the seat was considered “very safe” as Malays made up more than 70% of the voters.
“Contrary to what is being said by some people, Sungai Buloh is a very safe seat for Barisan.
“I am sure KJ will win there,” he told reporters when met at Wisma Umno after handing out letters of authorisation to Barisan candidates contesting parliamentary seats in Negri Sembilan.
Mohamad said the reason why Khairy, the three-term Rembau MP, was being fielded there was also because the Sungai Buloh Umno division was more than happy to have him contest the seat.
Division chief Datuk Megat Firdouz Megat Junid is Khairy’s political secretary.
“It’s always better to contest in a constituency where the election machinery welcomes you with open arms.
“There is no point in contesting a seat where you are not going to get the support of the party workers,” said Mohamad, who, in his parliamentary debut, will be contesting Khairy’s old seat.
PKR’s R. Sivarasa won his third term as the Sungai Buloh MP with a 26,634-vote majority in GE14. This general election, Pakatan Harapan is fielding R. Ramanan, who is PKR deputy information chief, for the seat in Selangor.
Mohamad said Barisan did not do well in Sungai Buloh in past elections as many voters wanted a candidate from Umno.
He also rubbished talk that the move to field Khairy in Sungai Buloh was to kill off his political career.
“Sungai Buloh will be good for KJ, who has a long and bright future in Umno,” he said.
Mohamad said the party would have to continue to work harder to win more seats this time around.
Citing an example, he said the number of voters in Rembau had increased from some 97,000 to 135,000 following the automatic voter registration exercise and lowering of the voting age to 18.