JOHOR BARU: Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has questioned the fatwa used by Perikatan Nasional chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who deemed voting for Pakatan Harapan’s Pulai parliamentary seat candidate Suhaizan Kayat as "haram” or sinful.
The Deputy Prime Minister, who is also Umno president and Barisan Nasional chairman, slammed the statement made by the former prime minister.
“Someone, who is not an ulama, has issued a political fatwa, claiming that voting for the unity government’s candidate, Suhaizan, is haram.
“I want to ask that person, which Quranic verse and Hadith he uses. When he was part of the Pakatan Harapan 1.0 government, everything was halal to him.
“But when they are no longer aligned, then he issues a fatwa,” he said in a press conference after visiting PPR Kempas Permai here on Sunday (Sept 3).
Ahmad Zahid added that voters in Johor, especially in Pulai and Simpang Jeram were not easily fooled by such things.
"In my opinion, Bangsa Johor and the voters in the two constituencies, in general, are different from voters in the states they control.
"The people of Johor need stability, the voters of Johor want their representatives to fight for their needs and destiny, whether in Pulai and Simpang Jeram,” he said.
On Saturday night, during a Perikatan ceramah at Taman Kempas here, Muhyiddin deemed it “haram” or sinful to vote for Suhaizan in the Pulai by-election.
“Do not give even one vote to Suhaizan, the ex-(Johor) speaker. I deem it as haram.
“Tomorrow someone will challenge me which fatwa this was based on,” the former prime minister quipped.
The by-election for the Pulai parliamentary seat and Simpang Jeram state seat were held following the death of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub who was respectively the MP and assemblyman for the seats.
Pakatan’s Suhaizan is in a three-cornered fight against Perikatan’s Zulkifli Jaafar and Independent candidate Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi.
Pulai is a mixed seat with Malays making up 44.18% of the total 166,653 registered voters, followed by the Chinese (40.46%), Indians (12.31%) and other ethnicities (3.06%).
In the 15th General Election held in November last year, Salahuddin had defended the seat and won with 64,900 votes, which gave him a 33,174 majority against Barisan Nasional-Umno’s Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed (31,726 votes) and Loh Kah Yong from Perikatan-Gerakan (20,677 votes).
