Replace Sanusi as MB? Kedah PAS Youth chief says Saifuddin Nasution couldn’t even keep Kulim seat
KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — Kedah PAS Youth chief Nasrun Othman today reminded Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail of his “less-than-stellar” performance in the 15th general election, after the latter expressed confidence in Pakatan Harapan winning the state election next month.
Nasrun said the PH secretary-general conveniently forgot that he lost his Kulim-Bandar Baharu seat when Perikatan Nasional (PN) swept 14 out the 15 parliamentary seats in last year’s general election.
“Before being overconfident for PH, Saifuddin should not forget that he lost the Kulim-Bandar Baharu seat by a large margin.
“Despite recently losing badly, he already harbours dreams of replacing (Kedah Menteri Besar) Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor,” said Nasrun in a statement today.
He was responding to Saifuddin, who said at a press conference in Alor Setar last week that once PH takes over Kedah, Muhammad Sanusi will be the first person that they will remove from Wisma Darul Aman.
Nasrun said Saifuddin’s expectations were unrealistic when PH’s support in the state has been falling steadily since the 14th general election.
“If the ‘14 to one’ result was not enough to make them regret, guess how many votes were lost in each parliament (compared to the previous election results in 2018),” he said.
In GE14, PH secured 10 parliamentary seats while PAS won three and Barisan Nasional, (BN) two.
Combining PH and BN, the two lost 11 seats in last year’s general election.
Nasrun also questioned Saifuddin’s prediction of 12 Kedah state seats that PH and BN could win in the August 12 state election.
“Bandar Baharu, Sungai Tiang, Lunas, Kulim, Bukit Selambau, Sidam, Bakar Arang, Gurun, Suka Menanti, Alor Mengkudu, Kubang Rotan and Pangkalan Kundur.
“The state seats that Saifuddin listed are all in the parliament constituencies that PN had won in GE15, except for Bakar Arang and Sidam that are under the Sungai Petani parliament,” he said, adding that despite PH securing Sungai Petani, it was with a majority of only 1,115 votes.
Nasrun said the facts revealed that PN’s votes in the 15 parliamentary seats had reported an increase of between two and three times, with some having a fivefold figure.
He said PN won Kedah with a majority of between 10,000 and 30,000.
Nasrun said Saifuddin was unappealing as a potential leader for Kedah voters, and this was obvious after the latter was rejected by his former constituents in Kulim-Bandar Baharu last year.
“At the same time, he even lost in his own party election,” he said.
