PKR more confident now, to contest 18 seats in Kedah

SUNGAI PETANI: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) plans to contest in 18 seats in Kedah, twice the number contested by the then Parti Keadilan Nasional in the 2004 general election before its merger with Parti Rakyat Malaysia to form PKR.

Kedah PKR chief Zamri Yusof said the party would contest 11 state and seven parliamentary seats compared with five state and four parliamentary seats contested by Keadilan in the last election.

Keadilan lost all the seats contested in the last election.

Zamri said the state seats PKR would be contesting this time were Bakar Arang, Sidam, Kulim, Lunas, Bukit Selambau, Gurun, Kuah, Bakar Bata, Derga, Bukit Kayu Hitam and Pedu; and the parliamentary seats were Sungai Petani, Kulim/Bandar Baharu, Padang Serai, Merbok, Alor Star, Kuala Kedah and Langkawi.

The seat allocation was decided at a recent meeting between PKR and PAS, he added.

“We feel that PKR stands a better chance this time in Kedah,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Kedah has 15 parliamentary and 36 state seats. Barisan Nasional holds 14 parliamentary and 31 state seats while PAS has one parliamentary and five state seats.

Zamri said PAS would contest in 24 state and eight parliamentary seats. DAP is expected to contest in the Kota Darulaman state seat.

Zamri lost to former deputy education minister Datuk Mahadzir Mohd Khir in the last general election by 17,502 votes in the Sungai Petani parliamentary constituency.

Former Kedah Keadilan chief Johari Abdul, 52, who stood in the Bakar Arang state seat in the last election, said he would contest the Sungai Petani parliamentary seat this time.

Johari lost to MCA’s Datuk Soon Kok Wah in 2004 by 8,899 votes.

Mahadzir said anyone is welcome to contest in Sungai Petani, “but they can never dream of wresting the parliamentary constituency from Barisan Nasional.”

Petaling Jaya-based management consultancy Infobid Sdn Bhd managing director G. Muralimohan, 52, plans to join in the fray as an independent candidate in the Sungai Petani parliamentary and Sidam state seat.

“I am saddened by what is happening in the country and want to serve the people if given an opportunity,” he said in an interview.

Muralimohan, who was a technician in the Public Works Department, left to join the private sector in 1983.

He was in the United States for six years in the ICT industry before setting up his own company in Petaling Jaya in 1998.