No sign of letting up: Shahidan (left) standing with his contenders for the Arau parliamentary seat, Rozabil (right) and Fathin Amelina at the Politeknik Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin nomination centre. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: Two former Barisan Nasional bigwigs who were dropped as the coalition’s candidates will still be defending their parliamentary seats in the 15th General Election (GE15).
Padang Besar incumbent Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin will be contesting as an independent after being replaced by Barisan Nasional.
Zahidi was replaced by Puteri Umno chief Datuk Zahida Zarik Khan as Barisan’s GE15 candidate.
Zahidi will be up against Zahida, Datuk Rushdan Rusmi of Perikatan Nasional, Ko Chu Liang of Warisan)and Mohamad Saad of Pakatan Harapan in a five-cornered fight.
Zahidi is the Deputy Minister for Communications and Multimedia in the caretaker government.
He has been the MP for Padang Besar since 2013.
In GE14 in 2018, Zahidi won with 15,032 votes beating Pakatan’s Izizam Ibrahim (13,594) and PAS’ Mokhtar Senik (7,874).
Meanwhile, Arau incumbent Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim will be contesting the same seat, but this time it is under the Perikatan ticket.
He has held the Arau parliamentary seat for several terms.
The caretaker Federal Territories Minister will be facing Barisan’s Datuk Rozabil Abd Rahman and Fathin Amelina Fazlie of Pakatan Harapan in a three-way fight.
Shahidan won the seat with a 4,856 majority in 2018. He was up against Datuk Dr Haji Abd Rahman Daud of Pakatan and Hashim Jasin of PAS.
Apart from Zahidi and Shahidan, there were several other prominent names who were dropped from the Barisan candidates list.
Among them were Tan Sri Annuar Musa (Ketereh), Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique (Kota Tinggi), Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba (Tenggara) and Datuk Mastura Mohd Yazid (Kuala Kangsar).
Another notable name dropped was Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Pasir Salak).
Despite rumors that he was courted by several parties, Annuar said he has chosen to remain with Umno, pledging his support for Barisan’s candidate in Ketereh, Marzuani Ardilla Ariffin.
