IPOH: Sungai Rapat Barisan Nasional state candidate Datuk Hamidah Osman denied that she had acted violently during an altercation with PKR’s Gopeng parliamentary candidate Dr Lee Boon Chye and his supporters.
“While I was campaigning elsewhere, Dr Lee approached my operations centre at Taman Tasik Permai with the intention of setting up his own centre nearby.
“Barisan party workers there were unhappy and informed me about the situation, so I hurried back to speak to him,” she said when contacted by The Star.
According to Hamidah, the discussion turned rowdy and supporters of both parties began pushing and showing each other.
“I was also pushed around, to the point that one of my shoes came off.
“I heard that a PKR supporter’s camera was damaged in the chaos, but I was not directly responsible for it,” she said.
Hamidah also denied grabbing Dr Lee by his collar during the altercation.
“It is ridiculous to claim that a woman would do something like that,” she said.
Hamidah said she would not heed Dr Lee’s demands for a public apology as she had done nothing wrong.
“It is Dr Lee who provoked Sungai Rapat Barisan by wanting to set an operations centre so close to our one.
“Although he claims they had done the same during the 2008 elections too, it was only a normal tent at that time and not a full-blown operations centre.
“As an MP, he should not be carrying out provocation tactics like this especially since the elections this time is so tense,” she said.
THE STAR ONLINE
