FORMER PAS leader Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali, defending his Kuala Nerus parliamentary seat for Barisan Nasional in this election, is facing a silent protest from Umno supporters, said his campaign team.

Former Tepoh assemblyman Muhammad Ramli Nuh said Umno grassroots members are unhappy because they cannot accept a former PAS leader contesting under the BN banner on the idea of Muslim unity, adding that Khairuddin’s candidacy was accepted by the leadership but not voters or the local campaign teams. 

He added that the concept of muafakat national (national consensus) was an idea hatched by party leaders in Kuala Lumpur but it had not reached Terengganu, a state that was once a fierce battleground between Umno and PAS, where wounds are still fresh to this day.

Ramli said that locals would usually reject a parachute candidate “but in this case, the situation is even worse because the leadership has picked a candidate who used to be in the opposition party, someone who is not from the family.

“There are also comments and mockery about Umno’s inability to find a candidate of its own.

“When the grassroots face something they did not expect, and has never happened before, we cannot deny that there will be a silent protest,” he told The Malaysian Insight. 

“I told Khairuddin, this week we will do as much as we can. To finish everything is quite impossible,” he said, adding that hopes campaigners can pacify the protesters.

In the first week of campaigning, Khairuddin was busy visiting polling district centres and Umno branches in Kuala Nerus to approach grassroots voters.

Umno Kuala Nerus has 115 branches in 37 voting districts. 

BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi did not announced Khairuddin when he named BN candidates at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on October 1.

Khairuddin’s name was only made public two days later by BN secretary-general Zambry Abd Kadir causing a stir in the division.

However, Ramli said he was confident that Khairuddin would be able to win over support from people not tied to any particular camp.

The constituency lies on the outskirts of Kuala Terengganu, and is inhabited by professionals including university lecturers. 

It is home to two universities, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Unisza), a teacher training institute and a training institute owned by Petronas.

However, the bias of 32% of young and automatically registered voters, swelling numbers to almost 106,000, is difficult to read.

Weak opponents

Meanwhile, Ramli said Khairuddin should not have any problems defending his seat because his opponents are not strong.

Khairuddin, who has the PAS MP for the constituency since 2013, is being challenged by Terengganu PAS deputy commissioner Alias Razak.

He is also the exco for local government, housing, health and the environment.

Suhaimi Hashim (Pakatan Harapan-Amanah) and Azaha Wahid from Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) are also nominated.

“Khairuddin is not an ordinary leader, his relationship with foreign leaders is great. The PAS leadership here lacks that. Many professionals actually go to him.

“PAS candidate Alias has not reached Khairuddin’s level yet. He as an exco is also problematic, his performance is not very good.

“He is an important exco but seems to have failed to carry out his duties to the point of causing grievances,” Ramli said.

Khairuddin left PAS in March this year after he was stripped of party posts after criticising party leadership for not working closely with Umno.

Meanwhile, Ilham Centre’s chief researcher Mohd Yusri Ibrahim said BN will still face challenges, as it did in 2018 when Khairuddin won with a majority of almost 8,500 votes from PAS supporters.

Khairuddin secured 53% of the vote, while his closest opponent Tengku Asmadi Tengku Mohamad (BN) managed just 41%.

“It is quite difficult for BN to take the majority if it depends on direct votes. For now, we see that the campaigns of the two top candidates are intense,” he said.

Yusri also said Khairuddin has some personal influence that can attract existing PAS votes and any silent protest depended on how the division leadership could convince their voters to support Khairuddin.

It also depends on how closely Khairuddin can work with Umno campaigners.

“On nomination day, Khairuddin passed the first hurdle when Umno supporters supported him.

“The attendance was quite extraordinary even though the decision to name him as a candidate was announced at the last minute,” he said.

Meanwhile, chairman of Gong Badak 4 operations centre Tengku Jalal Tengku Nara admitted that the Umno grassroots were still in the process of getting to know Khairuddin.

He said that even though it was difficult to accept the party’s decision to choose an opponent as a BN candidate, some Umno supporters began to understand and accept the situation.

“So far, there is no protest that has forced us to shut down any operation centres. Kuala Nerus operations centre is all still operational.

“It was only in the early days that there were a few objections, but after the naming of the candidate, the grassroots slowly accepted him even if they were surprised,” he said.

Perikatan Nasional-PAS targets a clean sweep of all eight constituencies in Terengganu.

In 2018, PAS won six seats while BN won two, one of which, Hulu Terengganu, later became a PN seat when its representative Rosol Wahid left Umno and joined Bersatu. – November 14, 2022.