Azman Nasruddin (right) with party workers at his centre in Sg Seluang.
KULIM: Former PKR man Azman Nasruddin appears to be much more relaxed now after five weeks of campaigning as Perikatan Nasional’s candidate for Padang Serai.
The former Bahasa Malaysia teacher of 18 years and now Kedah exco member for Indian affairs says he is breathing easy ahead of tomorrow’s polls, thanks to his former party boss Anwar Ibrahim.
Azman claimed that the new prime minister’s decision to name Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as his deputy and the inclusion of “questionable characters” in his Cabinet had made Pakatan Harapan undesirable.
He said that while canvassing for votes in areas considered to be Umno strongholds, he could see that voters were angry over the appointment of Zahid who was facing 47 corruption charges.
“They are upset with Anwar’s Cabinet line-up which included Zahid and Zafrul (international trade and industry minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz). I visited seven to eight villages, and this is what I am hearing. They will vote for PN in protest,” he told FMT.
“Now, if elections had been held on Nov 19, I would say that I had a 70% chance of winning the Malay vote. But today, I am confident that I have more than 80% support, thanks to Anwar.
“It is a blessing in disguise that the election was deferred.”
Azman said the sentiment has rubbed off on non-Malay voters too, with PH voters upset that the coalition did not keep its promise of not working with those who had been charged in court for corruption. Nearly two-thirds of 133,867 voters here are non-Malays.
“It looks like there’s little chance of Sofee Razak (PH’s candidate) winning, and a better chance for me as the blue PN wave, or the Malay tsunami, is more intense following Anwar’s decisions.
“The young voters will pick PN as it is a coalition without corruption problems. They have seen how PH ruled in 22 months and BN for over 60 years, and they’ve had enough,” he said.
Azman said claims that he would be voted out for switching to Bersatu from PKR was unlikely as he had jumped ship because “PKR lost its direction”.
“I left because Anwar had become dictatorial,” said the Lunas assemblyman who was elected on PKR’s ticket.
“As soon as he was released from jail, he told all of us at a dinner: ‘If you are not with me, you get out!’.
“I felt PKR was not a party that revolved around Anwar, but one that revolved around the people who built it and a promise of reforms.
“At the dinner, I saw the party had become a fan club instead of serving the peoples’ interests, so I decided to leave,” he said.
Azman said PN’s strong showing in the general election, in which it swept 13 out of the 15 parliamentary seats in Kedah, was due to menteri besar Sanusi Nor’s leadership.
“With neighbouring Merbok won by PN, I am confident I will win Padang Serai, inshaAllah,” he said.
Besides Azman and Sofee, the others vying for the Padang Serai seat tomorrow are Hamzah Abdul Rahman (Pejuang) and Ananda AK (independent). BN’s C Sivaraj and Warisan’s Bakri Hashim have withdrawn from the contest to give way to PH.
