Perlis ready to dump its two ministers?

Federal ministers Azmi Khalid and Radzi Sheikh Ahmad might find themselves being rejected by their respective divisions to contest in the coming general election.

Incumbent Padang Besar member of Parliament Azmi faces tough challenges from within his own Umno division for a spot to contest in the constituency.

Azmi ( photo ), who is also the natural resources and environment minister, is just one of 24 individuals whose names were submitted by the Padang Besar division in Perlis for the seat.

The division head, Zahidi Zainul Abidin, whose name was also submitted, said that the list has been submitted to both the state Umno and the Umno headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

"Those who are interested to contest the Padang Besar parliamentary seat are all included in the list.

"This would provide everybody the equal chances of being selected by the top party leadership to contest the seat," he said.

However Azmi’s situation was slightly better than that of Umno secretary-general and Home Affairs Minister Radzi who only managed a third placing, out of the four candidates nominated by his Kangar Umno division to contest the Kangar parliamentary seat.

Radzi is the incumbent in Kangar parliamentary constituency.

Nominations for both the seats were done by the committee members of both the Umno divisions recently.

Unpopular for state seat too

A Kangar Umno leader told Malaysiakini that the result in Kangar showed that Radzi was no longer a popular leader in his own division, particularly among the committee members.

"In fact, more than 90 percent of the 119 Umno branches in Kangar division have openly expressed their support for Perlis Menteri Besar Shahidan Kassim.

"This includes Radzi very own branch - Kampung Telok Jambu - which declined to support him in his tiff with Shahidan, who is also the Perlis Umno chief," he said.

The highest vote for the Kangar seat was obtained by the division’s head Ahmad Bakri Ali with his deputy Hashim Suboh came in second. The other candidate endorsed by the division was Perlis Umno Women chief Azahani Ali.

Radzi ( photo ) was also nominated to contest the Bintong state seat, under the Kangar parliamentary constituency. Here too he was only the third choice of the committee members.

However the final decision on who would be selected was up to party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Both Azmi and Radzi are at loggerheads with Shahidan, often accusing the menteri besar of holding a tight grip on the state’s affairs.

Recently the tense relationship between the two Perlis MPs and Shahidan became public after Radzi called for changes in Perlis Umno and even suggested that the menteri besar be replaced.

Azmi, for his part, raised the issues of river pollution in Perlis, a matter which Shahidan denied.

Comfortable win in 2004

Shahidan, however, claimed that his ties with all three members of Parliament from his state are good. The other MP from Perlis is Syed Razlan Jamalullail from Arau.

Since then he has also appointed both the ministers to the state Umno liaison advisory committee.

Last month, Shahidan said that he would, in his capacity as the state Umno chief, submit the names of Azmi and Khalid as candidates for the coming election.

Radzi and Azmi had resigned from their division posts - both were the respective division chiefs in Kangar and Padang Besar - after their victory in 2004 general election.

Perlis is a traditionally BN stronghold with a meek opposition from PAS.

There are three parliamentary seats in Perlis - Padang Besar, Kangar and Arau, all held by Umno. Of a total of 15 state seats, Umno also holds 12 seats with MCA having two. PAS controls one state seat.

In 2004, Azmi retained the Padang Besar seat comfortably with a 9,265 vote majority. Radzi contested in Kangar for the first time in the last election, also winning easily by 12,548-vote majority. Both of them defeated PAS candidates.