JOHOR BAHARU, April 8 – PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub(Pic) is expected to contest the Pulai parliamentary seat in the upcoming 13th general election, based on the status uploaded onto Facebook last night. Although his candidacy for Pulai has not been officially announced by the party’s top leadership, the status uploaded by the former Kubang Kerian MP about 8pm, has more or less answered the question of whether he would be vying for a parliamentary seat or state seat.
This is because since announcing late last year that he would be contesting in his home state this time, Salahudddin who was born in Kampung Serkat, Pontian, seemed to be looking for a suitable seat to contest. Among the areas mentioned by him that he could be contesting were the Nusajaya state seat, Putri Wang state seat or Tebrau parliamentary seat before choosing Pulai.
In the last general election in 2008, the Pulai seat (P161) was won by Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed from Barisan Nasional with a 20,499-vote majority, defeating PAS candidate, Abdullah Idris. If it turns out to be true that Salahuddin will be contesting the Pulai seat, he is seen as deliberately digging his own political grave as voter support appears to be in favour of BN.
Furthermore, Nur Jazlan is popular with the constituents, regardless whether they are Malays, Chinese or Indians because he has always been going to the ground and looking after their welfare. Salahuddin when contacted said his status on contesting was an unofficial indicator because where he would be contesting would be announced by the PAS’ top leadership soon.
“There’re also speculations that I will be vying for the Nusajaya state seat, but let’s wait for the official announcement,” he said. Salahuddin said although a Johorean, he realised it would not be easy to contest against BN or Umno as Johor was their stronghold.
“Nevertheless, people’s acceptance (of us) is different now and we expect a stiff fight in Johor,” he said.
BERNAMA
