GE15: Shahidan, Ismail defend respective seats on PN ticket

KUALA LUMPUR: The disappointment of being dropped by Barisan Nasional (BN) to contest in the 15th general election (GE15) was over for Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim and Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Abd Muttalib when they won their seats contesting on Perikatan Nasional (PN) ticket.

Shahidan who is the candidate for Arau parliamentary seat won with a majority of 23,216 votes defeating BN-UMNO candidate Datuk Rozabil Abd Rahman (8,242 votes) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate from PKR Fathin Amelina Fazlie (7,089 votes).

The victory allowed Shahidan, who was also a former Federal Territories Minister, to defend the parliamentary seat for the fifth term.

Meanwhile, former Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Abd Muttalib defended the Maran parliamentary seat for the fifth time since GE11 with 19,600 votes defeating BN's Shahaniza Shamsuddin (17,779) in a four-cornered fight.

However, fate was not on the side of two former PAS top leaders Datuk Che Abdullah Mat Nawi and Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali who contested in the Tumpat and Kuala Nerus parliamentary seats respectively on BN tickets.

In a five-cornered tussle, Che Abdullah who is also the former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Industries received 30,633 votes compared to Datuk Mumtaz Md Nawi of PN-PAS (65,426 votes) while Mohd Khairuddin lost with only 26,932 votes in a four-cornered fight.

Also losing in GE15 was Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin who was dropped from BN, unsuccessfully ran on an independent ticket for the Padang Besar parliamentary seat and Titi Tinggi state seat.

In the Padang Besar parliamentary seat, the former Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia only got 1,939 votes compared to Rushdan Rusmi (PN) who won with 24,267 votes while in the Titi Tinggi state seat, Zahidi also lost to his challenger Izizam Ibrahim (PN) in a six-cornered battle.

Similar to Zahidi, former PKR vice-president Tian Chua and DAP member Wong Tack who both contested as independent candidates lost in Batu parliamentary in a 10-cornered fight and a five-cornered battle for the Bentong parliamentary seat respectively.

In the Batu seat, Tian Chua only got 3,798 votes while Wong got 798 votes in Bentong.

-- BERNAMA