Terengganu Pakatan wants equal opportunity campaigning

KUALA TERENGGANU: Terengganu Pakatan Harapan wants a level playing field for the 14-day GE 15 campaign period in the state.

State Pakatan chairman Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin (pic) claimed the coalition had previously encountered difficulties whenever they organised any programmes.

“We hope the state government will not restrict us during the election period because this is the chance for the people to choose and we should be given a platform that is fair for us to meet and gather (with the people) as long as we are not breaking the law,” he said during a meet-the-people session held by Terengganu Pakatan candidates at Batu Buruk here yesterday.

Raja Kamarul said all eight parliamentary candidates are prepared to do battle, and the coalition will announce its manifesto in the next few days.

For Terengganu, focus will be given to oil royalty payments from the Federal Government to the state government.

“The Federal Government has been taking our oil royalty payments since 1999, but when we became the (Federal) government (in 2018), we gave it back to the state, even though it was under PAS at that time.

“Unfortunately, last year the Federal Government decided to take back the oil royalty payment, and what’s more heartbreaking is that despite having three PAS MPs who are ministers, five deputy ministers and one special envoy, none of them objected to this.

“This (giving back oil royalty payments to Terengganu) is what we have to look into,” he said, adding that they hope to create more job opportunities.

Raja Kamarul also said Pakatan would look at providing buses to ferry out-of-state voters back to their hometowns to vote.

“From what we understand, commercial bus tickets are sold out, so there have been efforts by a group of NGOs to provide buses for voters to travel from the Kuala Lumpur to other states.

“We too will try our best to provide buses for voters to return home,” he said.