DAP helped you win Pagoh in GE14 - Loke reminds Muhyiddin

Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin too once stood on Pakatan Harapan and DAP’s side to campaign together in the 14th general election, reminded Anthony Loke.

The transport minister and DAP secretary-general alleged that the Pagoh MP would not have retained his seat if he did not receive support from Harapan voters in 2018.

“He must have forgotten that he too once sat with Harapan and campaigned for DAP and the coalition.

“DAP too campaigned for him in Pagoh. If it wasn’t for the Harapan voters giving him support, there was no way he could have won in the 2018 general election.

“Perhaps he forgot about it,” Loke said at a press conference today.

In 2013, Muhyiddin - then Umno vice president and part of BN - won the Pagoh parliamentary seat with a majority of 12,842 votes. Harapan did not contest the seat.

Contesting under Bersatu and Harapan in 2018, he won with a slimmer majority of 6,927 votes against BN’s Ismail Mohamed Said.

In last year’s general election, the incumbent won the seat yet again by a 10,007 vote majority when contesting under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) banner. Harapan candidate Iskandar Shah Abd Rahman came in second.

On Saturday, Muhyiddin said the request by Umno supreme council member Ahmad Maslan for party members to support DAP candidates went against Umno’s principles.

The Pagoh MP added that it should be up to the members whether to respond to the call or not.

Ahmad previously said since Umno was already part of the coalition government, its members must abide by party discipline, including following any orders ahead of the state elections.

He urged Umno voters in the six states up for elections to vote for DAP candidates in the name of the coalition government.

The states up for election this year are Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Selangor, and Terengganu.

Cooperation is logical

Commenting on Ahmad’s statement today, Loke said there was nothing wrong with Umno supporters voting for the government’s component parties.

”(Ahmad’s statement) is a logical one. When there is cooperation, surely the cooperating parties will work together.

“DAP leaders will also be campaigning during the state elections, and we will ask our members to support Umno candidates,” he said.

Asked about Muhyiddin’s claim that PN would get up to 80 percent of votes in the state polls, Loke said that the former prime minister was allowed to make comments.

“That’s okay, he is allowed to have his opinions.

“In election campaigns, anyone is allowed to ‘cakap besar’ (boast), but I think that those who do are usually the ones who end up disappointed,” he said.

Muhyiddin, who is also the PN chairperson, said he was confident of PN’s success in the upcoming polls, citing a study by the coalition which showed that Bersatu, Gerakan, and PAS are ahead in terms of popularity and leadership.

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