GE14 | The PKR Kulim Bandar-Baharu candidate Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has rubbished his Umno rival Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir’s explanation on why the road upgrade the latter promised last election did not materialise.

He was responding to Aziz, who told Malaysiakini in an interview on Saturday the budget for the upgrade was “taken out” in favour of the proposed Kulim International Airport project.

Saifuddin said that is not how government budgets work.

“I wish to remind Aziz that large-scale projects like the Kulim airport proposed by the menteri besar at the time (Mukhriz Mahathir, now Kedah Pakatan Harapan chief) is not implemented by reallocating a budget for highways to build an airport. It doesn’t work that way.

“If there are plans to build an airport, the government would normally have a budget for an airport.

“If the government wants to build a highway, then the government would have a budget for a highway.

“It’s not as if a highway promised by Aziz would not materialise just because the budget for it had been taken by the menteri besar at the time to build an airport,” he told Malaysiakini yesterday.

He urged voters to see how Aziz had failed to deliver his promises, and he urged the Umno candidate to make “realistic” promises based on the country’s financial position, and not make promises he can’t keep.

The upgrade to the said highway was meant for a road connecting the towns of Bandar Baharu and Kulim in the constituency, via Serdang. This would turn the two-lane road into a four-lane road.

Road too far

Aziz had previously told Malaysiakini that he had served his voters well, but his failure to deliver the road upgrade as promised was the one issue his critics would use against him.

Hence, he said one of his challenges to be re-elected as Kulim-Bandar Baharu MP was to convince voter that the upgrade is still in the works.

“The government has agreed to put that (road upgrade) as a priority and part of Kedah's manifesto would actually be to complete that road.

“So that is the one issue I need to convince voters that I have tried. I have not done it, but I'm pretty sure that it's going happen soon.

“Other than that, as I have said, we have served the people. We hope all our hard work will actually be converted into support,” he said.

Aziz won his first term in the Kulim-Bandar Baharu seat in 2013, beating Saifuddin by 1,871 votes (3.6 percent of the ballots cast) in a straight fight.

He now faces a three-cornered fight to defend his seat against Saifuddin and PAS’ Hasan Abdul Razak.

Kulim-Bandar Baharu is one of the marginal swing seats in Kedah. It was held by PKR’s Zulkifli Nordin following the 2008 general election, who later became an independent MP before Aziz won the seat.