Melaka polls: PKR targeting to win seven seats including Lendu - Halim Bachik

MELAKA: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) is targeting to win seven of the 11 seats it is contesting in the Melaka state election, said its Melaka chairman Halim Bachik.

Halim said the party was confident of capturing four more seats to add to the Rembia, Kelebang and Machap Jaya constituencies it won in the 14th general election (GE14) in 2018.

"The four additional seats are Paya Rumput, Asahan, Rim and Lendu," he told a press conference via Zoom here today.

In GE14, Pakatan Harapan (PH) formed the state government after winning 15 seats, with DAP contributing eight; PKR, three; Amanah, two; and Bersatu, two.

In this election on Nov 20, PH is contesting in all 28 seats, with PKR featuring in 11, Amanah (nine) and DAP (eight).

Bersatu is now part of Perikatan Nasional (PN) which, like Barisan Nasional (BN) and PH, is also contesting in all 28 seats.

Halim said although Lendu was a BN stronghold represented by incumbent Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali, the caretaker Chief Minister, PKR was confident that its young candidate could win as he could bring changes.

"Although it is a Malay-majority seat, GE13 and GE14 showed that even former chief ministers failed to successfully defend their seats despite being incumbents," he added.

Lendu is seeing a three-cornered fight involving Sulaiman, Abdullah Mahadi of PN and Mohamad Asri Ibrahim of PH.

In GE14, Sulaiman won the seat by a majority of only 627 votes.

-- BERNAMA