SEBERANG PERAI, Oct 19 — Umno vice president Datuk Seri Ismail Yaakob is confident his party and the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition it leads will be able to take back the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary seat in the 15th general election, especially after its incumbent who switched parties has no intentions to defend it.

The caretaker prime minister noted that Tasek Gelugor constituents were known to be stout BN supporters and the seat was lost only because the incumbent MP Datuk Shabudin Yahaya switched parties after the last election.

"I know we have strong support here. This used to be under BN but the MP hopped to another party after winning the seat,” he said in his speech during a Keluarga Malaysia community programme in Tasek Gelugor today.

He said that he chose to hold the programme in Tasek Gelugor because "I want to make sure we win back this constituency”.

He also said the BN hopes to make more gains in Penang, even though there won’t be any state election running concurrently with the general election this time around.

The DAP-led Penang government had sought to hold concurrent state-national election this year but was overruled by the Pakatan Harapan top leadership council, which decided that all three states it holds — the other two being Selangor and Negri Sembilan — should serve their full term.

"We hope to gain back some power in Penang with your support in this election,” Ismail Sabri said.

In a later press conference, he said the Tasek Gelugor Umno division had submitted names of several candidates to be fielded for the seat without disclosing further details.

Tasek Gelugor incumbent Shabudin was originally from Umno and was first elected its MP in the 13th general election.

He was reelected in the 14th general election while contesting under the BN banner by a slim majority of only 81 votes.

He left BN in December 2018 and became an independent MP before joining Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia in 2019.

Shabudin has announced that he will not be defending his seat in the 15th general election.