GE14 | Umno supreme council leader Mohd Puad Zarkashi lashing out at not being re-fielded as BN's Batu Pahat candidate has seen him becoming increasingly cornered, with even Umno vice president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi criticising him.

However, Puad has also become more defiant in his public statements, in which he has dropped hints about having dirt on various BN candidates.

On Tuesday, after rebutting Zahid's criticism that Batu Pahat needed a new face as BN was growing weak in the parliamentary constituency, Puad claimed a certain candidate had "personal moral issues".

However, he did not name the candidate. After Puad's claim, a 2011 police report resurfaced on social media, apparently related to the said candidate.

The police report claimed a local imam along with the police had raided a house in Johor, which resulted in the arrest of one man and two women, one of whom was the candidate.

The case was being investigated under Section 27(1) of the Johor Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment 1997 concerning khalwat (close proximity).

The section states a man or a woman found with any others of the opposite sex, who are not his or her spouse or related, in any secluded place under circumstances which may give rise to suspicion that they were engaged in immoral acts, shall be guilty of an offence.

Selection system slammed

In another statement yesterday, Puad turned on caretaker Johor menteri besar Mohamed Khaled Nordin, blaming him for (Puad) being dropped as a candidate.

In that statement, Puad again hinted at having dirt on yet another BN candidate.

"That is why I said the system (of candidates selection) has been damaged by the very people who claim it is good, to the extent a candidate who has a photograph of him in bed with a woman who is not mahram (not his wife or related, according to Islam) can be chosen as a candidate," he said.

However, he did not name names.

Puad had until this week served as the director-general of the government's propaganda arm Jasa, the Special Affairs Department.

He resigned from the position on Wednesday, after he was not named as candidate for Batu Pahat.

Puad contested the seat in the last general election and lost to PKR.

In the coming poll, he will be replaced by Batu Pahat Wanita chief Haliza Abdullah.