Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!
KUALA LUMPUR (Politics Now!) - In what is seen as a smart move aimed at wresting the PM's post from the ineffective Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's Muslims-only Pas party is fielding its fast-rising star Samsuri Mokhtar (right in above pic) as the Kemaman candidate in a by-election due to be balloted on Dec 2.
Samsuri, who is also the Terengganu chief minister, had led his party to a clean sweep (32 - 0) of all the seats in the state election held earlier this year. He is believed to be the blue-eyed boy of influential party chief Hadi Awang - and together with Kedah chief minister Sanusi Nor are considered the heirs to the party's top leadership.
"It's another strategical move and Pas now has two tigers in Parliament capable of taking up the country's topmost party," a political analyst told Politics Now!
"Samsuri is the perfect complement to Sanusi. He is seen as the quiet master-strategist while Sanusi is the charismatic master-orator. Whether you like Pas or are uncomfortable with its radical and racial approach, they have now positioned themselves as a credible government-in-waiting. Of course, this will put tremendous pressure on Anwar because there's no way Samsuri will lose, unless something bizarre or sinister happens.
In the upcoming by-election, Samsuri will face off with Umno's Raja Affandi in a straight fight that many predict will be another massive landslide victory for Pas, now the country's biggest and most powerful political party.
Campaigning will kick off today in the rural constituency of 141,790 voters, who are predominantly Malay-Muslims.
Citing complaints of election bribery, the Terengganu Election Court had nullified the victory of Samsuri's party mate Che Alias Hamid, who won the seat during the last year's general election.
In that general election, Pas had won all the 8 federal seats up for grabs.
Umno's Raja Affandi is the former Chief of Defence Forces.
Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!
Politics Now!
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