SIMPANG RENGGAM: Pakatan Harapan is prepared to face bigwigs to defend its Simpang Renggam parliamentary seat, says former education minister Dr Maszlee Malik.
Talk is rife that former mentri besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad, who is also Johor Barisan Nasional chairman, will be contesting in Simpang Renggam.
Maszlee, the incumbent Simpang Renggam MP, said the coalition was determined to maintain the seat that it won in the previous general election.
"It is the right of each party contesting to field any candidates they want.
"But for us, whoever the candidates are, we will defend the seat to the best of our ability " he told the press after the launch of Simpang Renggam PKR machinery on Sunday (Oct 23).
He said this when asked if he is prepared to face political bigwigs such as Hasni if they were to contest for the seat in GE15.
Maszlee said it has not been officially announced that he will be defending the Simpang Renggam seat.
"Officially, the party has not confirmed if I will be contesting here. I just shared on social media that I received an instruction from party president (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) to defend my Simpang Renggam seat," he said.
On Saturday (Oct 22), Hasni hinted that he might be contesting outside of his Pontian division in GE15.
The former mentri besar, however, said the matter was still being discussed by the Umno central leadership.
"My name is one of those considered by the Umno supreme council to contest a seat outside my party division of Pontian.
“I will leave it to the top leadership to decide on this. Personally, having a chance to contest is good enough for me, regardless of which seat,” Hasni said.
In the 14th General Election (GE14), Maszlee, who was then in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, won the Simpang Renggam seat with a 3,475 majority in a three-corned fight. He later joined PKR.
