IPOH: Tambun parliamentary seat incumbent Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said that as as a local in the area, he holds many advantages to 'take care' of the voters there compared to an 'outsider'.

"I am indeed a native of Tambun and even after GE15 (the 15th General Election) ends, whether I win or not I will still be there but we welcome anyone who wants to contest the seat.

"Certainly being a local candidate gives me an advantage because since 2018, I have spent a lot of time in Tambun and been close to the people because I take care of Tambun," he told Bernama.

In GE14 in 2018, Ahmad Faizal who contested on a Pakatan Harapan (PH) ticket using the PKR logo, won Tambun in a three-cornered clash against Barisan Nasional (BN) and PAS candidates, after garnering 38,661 votes, giving him a majority of 5,320 votes.

Ahmad Faizal, who is now Bersatu deputy president and also Perak Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman, said the strategy of placing local candidates is expected to give advantages and bear fruit because they have always been with the people in difficult and good times before.

"It is certain that we in PN will present candidates from all coalitions in PN (for the state seats under the Tambun constituency), let's wait for the announcement that will be made soon on who will be my partners in the Tambun seat," he added.

On Thursday (Oct 20), PH chairman and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had announced that he will be contesting the Tambun seat in GE15, nomination of which is on Nov 5 and polling on Nov 19.

-- BERNAMA