KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 — DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has scoffed at Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) boast that it can diminish Pakatan Harapan’s influence in Penang at the coming state election.
Lim, who is both Air Putih assemblyman and Bagan MP, dismissed Perlis lawmaker Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim’s assertion that PN in its “green wave” could “shake” DAP’s hold since taking over Penang in Election 2008, news portal Free Malaysia Today reported today.
“Let him be, let him dream as much as he wants,” Lim was quoted as saying during a Penang DAP Chinese New Year open house at SJK(C) Shang Wu in George Town last night.
Shahidan, a former Umno warlord who defected to PN to contest in GE15 last November, had claimed that PN component party PAS was ready to “shake” the state in the coming state elections.
The Arau MP said PN is confident that it will retain Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.
“God willing, PN and PAS will take control of these states. We will move to Negeri Sembilan in a peaceful (manner); we have a strategy.
“And we will ‘shake’ Penang. This is because we are on a jihad to ensure our efforts are visible,” Shahidan wrote in a Facebook post yesterday.
Penang has 40 seats in its state legislative assembly.
At present, Pakatan Harapan (PH) has more than two-thirds majority in the assembly with 33 seats.
From the 33 seats, DAP has the majority with 19, followed by PKR with 12 and Parti Amanah Negara having two.
The remaining seats are divided between Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) with four seats, Umno two and PAS one.
The Penang state assembly term will expire on August 2 and state elections must be held within two months after that date.
In the 15th general election last November, several parliamentary seats in Penang such as Permatang Pauh, Kepala Batas and Tasek Gelugor fell to PAS, giving rise to the so-called PN-PAS wave.
