Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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BAGAN DATUK (Nov 13): Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has confirmed that he had offered to reappoint Datuk Seri Anifah Aman as foreign minister if Barisan Nasional won the 15th general elections.

“We (BN) must form the government. He is very suitable to be reappointed as foreign minister,” Zahid told The Edge after the Umno president’s talk in Taman Bagan Pasir on Sunday (Nov 13).

“He (Anifah) was foreign minister for nine years (and) performed very well during his tenure. We were in the cabinet together.

“And because of that, he deserves to be appointed as a senator and later to be appointed as foreign minister. I think he deserves it, it portrayed that he really has value,” Zahid added.

Earlier, Anifah claimed that Zahid promised him a minister position in the new government, if he did not contest in GE15.

Anifah was foreign minister in April 2009 to May 2018, when BN was the ruling coalition.

At that time, Zahid was the deputy prime minister while Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the prime minister.

Anifah was previously MP of Beaufort and Kimanis.

In September 2018, Anifah resigned from Umno, citing the failure of the parties to deliver on promises made in relation to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

The Parti Cinta Sabah president has appeared to be vocal about his support for the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

Aside from that, Zahid told The Edge that defending his Bagan Datuk parliamentary seat is a “tough fight”. 

“(It would) not be a landslide win, (it is) tough fight but we believe we are going to make it,” he said.

“From the report that we received, I think the number of support from the Chinese are growing very fast.

“We believed we have to maintain and up our efforts, for them to still support BN candidates,” Zahid said. 

Zahid, who has been the Bagan Datuk incumbent MP for five terms, is in a four-cornered fight for the parliamentary constituency in GE15.

He faced PH candidate Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Dr Muhammad Faiz Na'aman and independent candidate Mohamed Tawfik Tun Dr Ismail.

In the GE14, Zahid defended the parliamentary seat with a 5,073-vote majority after receiving 18,909 votes to defeat Pakhrurrazi Arshad (PKR), who received 13,836 votes, and PAS candidate Ata Abdul Muneim Hasan Adli (4,061 votes).

According to information from the Election Commission, Bagan Datuk has 58,183 registered voters. Most are in the 30 to 39 age group, which consists of 14,080 voters.

In terms of ethnic breakdown, it has a majority of Malay voters at 58.99%, followed by Indian voters (21.63%) and Chinese voters (17.72%).

Edited ByLam Jian Wyn
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