PETALING JAYA, July 26 — Selangor Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali tonight rejected suggestions he was fleeing from Bukit Antarabangsa, saying he was instead returning to Hulu Kelang that was the first seat he won in 1999.
Speaking to reporters after his candidacy for the Selangor state election was announced, Azmin, who is also a former Gombak MP, said Hulu Kelang came under his old federal constituency.
“I want to stress that Hulu Kelang has been my first seat since 1999. And when I was Gombak MP since 2008, Hulu Kelang is still part of Gombak until today, so there is no issue of running away.
“As a politician, we must be ready when it comes to these situations,” he said.
The former Selangor menteri besar said his focus is on winning and developing the state, when asked if he will be named PN’s “poster boy”.
“We have made the decision to focus on the people's problems first, that should be our priority rather than power or position,
“So to implement the policy of caring for the people, we have to win in the election... and win by a convincing number,” he added.
Azmin made his electoral debut under the banner of Parti Keadilan Nasional, which later merged with Parti Rakyat and formed the present-day PKR, when he ran and won the Hulu Kelang state seat in Election 1999.
In Election 2008, he contested in both the Bukit Antarabangsa state seat and Gombak parliamentary seat and won both, and managed to defend the latter until GE15 last November when it was wrested by his successor as menteri besar, Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari.
PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced all 56 candidates last night in his mission to wrest Selangor from rival Pakatan Harapan.
Of the 56 seats in the Selangor assembly, Bersatu will contest 31, followed by PAS with 17 and Gerakan with eight seats.
