PN leader disagrees with KJ, says anti-'UMDAP' sentiment strong

Perikatan Nasional operations director for the Nenggiri by-election Annuar Musa disagreed that DAP’s absence during the campaign period would favour Umno.

The former Ketereh MP also claimed that the majority of Malay voters are opposed to the cooperation between BN and Pakatan Harapan.

According to him, the people’s rejection of “UMDAP (Umno-DAP)” and Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is strong in Nenggiri, which falls under the Gua Musang parliamentary constituency in Kelantan.

He was commenting on former Umno leader Khairy Jamaluddin’s assessment that since DAP has been asked to skip the campaign, this would help flip the seat in Umno’s favour.

Acknowledging that Gua Musang is a BN stronghold, Annuar, however, said this does not mean Umno would be able to wrest the Nenggiri seat which fell to PN in the last state election with a slim majority of 810 votes.

Furthermore, he said history has shown that the people of Nenggiri are not fanatical supporters of Umno.

“They left Umno and supported Semangat 46 in the early 1990s,” he said, adding that a similar situation unfolded in the last general and state elections.

“This is proof that the people of Nenggiri possess a high political understanding,” he added when met on the campaign trail.

Ku Li still influential

In the 2022 national polls, Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who is leading the charge for the Nenggiri by-election, suffered a shock defeat in Gua Musang after retaining the parliamentary seat for a record 12 terms.

Commenting on Razaleigh, who is better known as Ku Li, Annuar conceded that the 87-year-old politician is still influential.

However, he claimed that voters are aware that Zahid is “making use” of the veteran in a bid to avoid defeat.

“I am sure Ku Li has not forgotten how Zahid and his cyber troopers insulted him when he contested for the Umno top post.

“I am sure Ku Li has not forgotten about how he was ‘played out’ by Zahid who purportedly offered him the prime minister post but in actual fact had planned to make Anwar Ibrahim the prime minister (after the last general election),” he added.

The Aug 17 by-election would be a straight fight between BN’s Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani and PN’s Rizwadi Ismail.

On June 19, Kelantan state assembly speaker Amar Nik Abdullah declared the seat vacant after receiving a notice from Bersatu that former assemblyperson Azizi Abu Naim had ceased to be a member of the party on June 13.