BESUT, Oct 16 — Tan Sri Idris Jusoh is leaving it to the Umno leadership to determine whether he would be listed to defend the Besut parliamentary seat in the 15th General Election (GE15).

Idris, 67, who is also the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) chairman, said he was ready to continue serving the party, people and country if asked to contest again.

"I leave it to the party president to decide whether I will contest or not. It’s not good for me to speculate as the party will decide on this,” he told reporters after attending the first convocation ceremony of Besut Polytechnic, here, today.

He was asked to comment on a statement that went viral on social media claiming that the Besut parliamentary seat would be for Besut Umno division chief, Datuk Nawi Mohamad, to contest.

Idris has been the Member of Parliament for Besut for five terms and became well-known in politics when he led Terengganu Barisan Nasional (BN) in overthrowing PAS and was the state’s Menteri Besar from 2004 to 2008.

In GE14, Idris won the Besut seat after obtaining 34,335 votes, defeating PAS candidate Riduan Mohamad Nor (29,736 votes) and PKR candidate Datuk Dr Wan Nazari Wan Jusoh (6,864).

At the convocation, a total of 61 graduates of Besut Polytechnic received the Diploma in Information Technology (Digital Technology) presented by Idris at the institution’s new campus. — Bernama