BUKIT GELUGOR When MCA decided not to contest and with the nation's focus on DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud for the Teluk Intan by-election, the battle for Bukit Gelugor was reduced to a boring affair.

That was until Abu Backer Sidek Mohamad Zan threw himself in front of the Mercedes-Benz ferrying Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

The independent candidate, who is also a lawyer, landed in the hospital for two days.

Though claiming to have suffered a fracture pelvis and broken ribs, he is confident of galloping towards the finish line, come May 25.

Abu Backer, who has a passion for horses and uses the animal as his logo, also believes that he poses the only credible challenge to DAP candidate Ramkarpal Singh for the parliament seat.

"My methods are like a horse's. I start off slowly, then pick up speed and finally start to gallop.

"Even though I was injured the other day, I can still gallop," he told Malaysiakini as he attempted to mimic the running motions of a horse.

But it would not just be an imaginary horse since Abu Backer has prepared a horse caravan as an election gimmick for the final dash of campaigning.

Huan and Nabi have no impact

Apart from Ramkarpal, he would be facing Parti Cinta Malaysia's (PCM) Huan Cheng Guan and another Independent Mohamed Nabi Bux Mohd Nabi Abdul Sathar.

Ramkarpal is widely seen as the frontrunner, who is attempting to replace his late father Karpal Singh, who died in a car crash last month, paving the way for the by-election.

"The contest is between me and Ramkarpal, we are both lawyers," said Abu Backer.

"The PCM candidate is only seen as an MCA replacement (for Chinese voters) while Nabi Bux is only focusing on Malay areas," he added.

Before this, Abu Backer said, he had campaigned using a 10-taxi convoy which he rented to go around meeting voters in Bukit Gelugor.

However, he claimed to have faced hiccups in his campaigning after the DAP-led state government refused to grant him permission to rent public halls for his ceramah.

"I have been trying to rent a hall for the past week but all kinds of excuses were given. I was told verbally that DAP are occupying them," he alleged.

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