KUALA BESUT, July 21- More members of the Wanita UMNO machinery will be arriving here to help Barisan Nasional (BN) retain the Kuala Besut state seat in the July 24 by-election, the movement chief, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said on Friday.
She said about 600 members from the UMNO women’s wing nationwide were already here to mobilise programmes and activities with the people.
She said they would be assisted by 160 members of other BN component parties, especially to explain to constituents on the need to ensure Kuala Besut remain under BN in ensuring continuous development.
“By meeting the residents and voters, as well as visiting them at their homes, we would be able to hear their views, even if they are negative,” she told reporters after the National Welfare Foundation’s ‘Sentuhan Medik’ programme in Kuala Besut, Friday.
BN has announced Tengku Zaihan Che Ku Abd Rahman, 37, a civil engineer with the Drainage and Irrigation Department who hails from Kuala Besut, as its candidate while PAS has named Endot alias Azlan Yusof, 48, a contractor, as its candidate.
The by-election has been necessitated by the death of assemblyman Dr A. Rahman Mokhtar of the BN of lung cancer on June 26.
He had won the seat with a 2,434 majority by beating Napisah Ismail of PAS in the general election on May 5.
Kuala Besut has 17,683 voters.
Earlier, Shahrizat visited 10-year-old Abdul Mutalib Saipi, who has been ill for the past eight years, to present aid, comprising disposable napkins and colostomy bag to the boy.
On another note, she said it would be “the more the merrier” if she were to face many challengers for the Wanita UMNO head post at the party’s polls scheduled for October.
“Before I became an elected representative I was a law practitioner and once was a Magistrate. So I am all for the democratic process.
“I welcome anyone to contest the post, it is the members who will decide who they want (as president of Wanita UMNO),” she said.
Asked on Member of Parliament for Penggerang Datuk Azalina Othman Said’s intention to challenge her for the post, Shahrizat said she welcomed it but reminded the former Puteri UMNO chief not to cause rifts in the party in doing so.
-BERNAMA
