GOPENG, April 8 – The MCA has confirmed that it will hand over the Tronoh state constituency seat, which has been its seat traditionally, to be contested by the MIC in the 13th general election (GE13). MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek(pic) said the decision was made based on the spirit of power sharing between the Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties after getting the green light from BN chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“After lengthy discussions with the Prime Minister, we are ready to hand over the Tronoh seat to the MIC unconditionally because in the general election, we need to get the support of all races to ensure victory for the BN.
“Seats can change, nothing is permanent and thus, we must look at the seats as BN seats instead of Umno, MCA or MIC seats and be prepared to relinquish them to the other component party if that particular party has a greater potential of winning,” he told reporters after visiting the SRJK Lawan Kuda, here today.
In the 2008 general election, the state seat was won by the DAP candidate, V. Sivakumar who beat the BN candidate from the MCA, Lee Kim Choy by a 2,571-vote majority.Chua also confirmed that the MCA would contest in the Sungkai state seat which was previously contested by the MIC while the MIC would be contesting in the Buntong state constituency which was previously contested by the MCA.
“The MCA will swap the Buntong state seat with the MIC for the Sungkai state seat in the GE13 based on the fact that Chinese voters make up about 55 per cent of the electorates in Sungkai while in Buntong, the Indian voters make up 45 per cent of the electorates,” he said.
In the last general election, the Sungkai state seat was contested by the BN candidate from the MIC, Datuk S.Veerasingam who lost to the DAP candidate, A. Sivanesan with a majority of 1,454 votes while the MCA candidate Lee Tung Lai lost in Buntong to A.Sivasubramaniam (DAP) with a majority of 5,315 votes.
Earlier, Dr Chua visited the Lawan Kuda Hawkers Centre and announced an allocation of RM80,000 for the upgrading and renovation of the centre wich is more than 40 years old.
BERNAMA
