KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — DAP announced today that it will field Shazwan Zdainal Abidin in the Pontian federal seat, after receiving the berth in addition to others it secured earlier.
The Pontian seat was on top of those the party already announced, which included Liew Chin Tong for Iskandar Puteri, Sheikh Umar Ali for Ayer Hitam, Tan Hong Pin for Bakri, Fatin Zulaikha Zaidi for Mersing, Teo Nie Ching for Kulai, and Wong Shu Qi for Kluang.
“We finally got an extra seat in Johor. We had a negotiation and it was decided last Saturday,” DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke said when met by reporters after presenting the credential letters to the party’s candidates for the 15th general election.
“We asked for Sembrong, so we got this as a counter offer instead.”
In the 2018 general election, the Pontian seat was allocated to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) that had been part of Pakatan Harapan. It fielded Karmaine Sardini, the Tanjung Piai Bersatu chief, who lost to Barisan Nasional incumbent Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan by just 833 votes.
In total, DAP will contest 55 parliamentary seats and 28 state seats in GE15.
Shazwan, who is from Batu Pahat is currently assisting in the Pengerang DAP division.
“I was expecting to help out with election campaign under Sheikh Umar in Ayer Hitam,” he said when met, indicating that the decision for him to contest the Pontian seat was a surprise.
Yesterday, BN confirmed Ahmad Maslan would be defending Pontian, when he was announced along with the rest of the coalition’s GE15 candidates.
