Tough assignments for PKR's two new rising stars

The upcoming election will see the PKR Women's chief Fadhlina Sidek and Youth chief Adam Adli making their electoral debut.

According to sources, Fadhlina (above, right) will be fielded as a candidate for the Nibong Tebal parliamentary seat.

She will likely have to take on incumbent Mansor Othman, 72, a former Penang deputy chief minister.

Mansor is a favourite to retain his seat by virtue of his stature and experience. However, his reputation has taken a hit after he defected from PKR in 2020, along with Azmin Ali.

Fadhlina, 45, is currently working as a lawyer and member of the Dewan Negara. Her term as a senator expires in August 2024.

As for Adam, he is slated to be fielded as a candidate for Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary seat in Malacca.

He will be replacing incumbent Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin, who has been slated to challenge Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for the Bagan Datuk seat.

"The initial plan was for Adam to contest the Nibong Tebal seat but this was changed. Now, Fadhlina will go to Nibong Tebal while Adam is going to contest the Hang Tuah Jaya seat," said a source.

Both Fadhlina and Adam are Penang natives.

Hang Tuah Jaya was won by Shamsul Iskandar in 2018 when he secured a comfortable 53 percent of the votes cast, scoring an upset against Malacca Umno stalwart Mohd Ali Rustam.

However, during the Malacca elections in 2021, the four Pakatan Harapan candidates within the Hang Tuah Jaya constituency only polled a combined 40 percent of the votes cast.

Therefore, Adam is expected to have his work cut out for him.

Adam, 33, has a teaching degree and has worked for several civil society organisations. He went into full-time politics last year.

Both Adam and Fadhlina's candidacies are expected to be officially announced tomorrow. They declined to comment when contacted.

The duo also declined to comment on them being listed as candidates, saying that they want to wait for the party’s announcement.

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