Malacca polls: MCA gets Kota Laksamana after PN hands seat back to BN

MCA has secured another seat to contest in the Nov 14 Malacca state election after Perikatan Nasional handed back the Kota Laksamana seat to BN.

MCA president Wee Ka Siong said PN voluntarily returned the seat to BN, with MCA agreeing to field a candidate in yet another DAP-held constituency.

"As I mentioned a few days ago, MCA is ready to respond and accept whatever challenges or trials. We remain with the people. We are not afraid, and we will field a candidate in Kota Laksamana.

"After obtaining the agreement of the BN chairperson, Melvin Chua has been given the mandate to represent BN and MCA in Kota Laksamana," he told a press conference in Malacca today.

Malaysiakini earlier learnt that PN had decided not to field a candidate in the seat and instead offered it to a BN component party.

The development leaves PN contesting in only five seats, as announced last night, while MCA's allocation increases from two to four.

BN had initially decided to contest 21 seats, with the remaining seven allocated to PN, including Kota Laksamana.

Wee had earlier given a positive indication of the seat's return when contacted by Malaysiakini.

"PN handed over the state seat, not PAS," he said briefly via WhatsApp when asked whether MCA had received an offer from PAS to contest in Kota Laksamana.

Seat allocations

PN announced last night that it would contest five of the six seats allocated to it. PAS and Wawasan Negara were each given two seats, while Gerakan was allocated one.

MCA was initially allocated two seats, Machap Jaya and Kelebang, a distribution that left the party dissatisfied. However, BN subsequently gave it an additional seat in Bandar Hilir, where Jasmine Low Hui Yi will be its candidate.

Kota Laksamana is a DAP stronghold held by Low Chee Leong since 2018. In the 2021 Malacca state election, he retained the seat with an 11,494-vote majority, defeating candidates from MCA and Gerakan.

He will face Chua again, five years after their first electoral contest in 2018, when the DAP candidate won by a majority of 16,173 votes.

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