MIC wins fight for Hulu Selangor slot

MIC will be flying Barisan Nasional’s colours in the coming Hulu Selangor by-election, after the coalition chose to stick to the status quo despite rumblings from Umno Selangor.

The Malaysian Insider understands that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has expressed a preference to “honour” the arrangements made during Election 2008, after chairing an Umno supreme council meeting yesterday.

“Umno will honour its agreement... Datuk Seri Najib also wants it this way,” a member of the supreme council told The Malaysian Insider.

Nevertheless, the council member said the matter was not raised during the meeting last night: “There were no direct discussions (of the matter) but we will honour the agreement from before, which means that MIC will contest (the seat).”

The council member personally felt that MIC should continue to fight for the seat, seeing as how it ran under the BN banner two years ago.

MIC has been contesting the Hulu Selangor seat since the 1980s.

The person quipped that while Umno would continue to back Datuk G. Palanivel, they hoped “there will be a renewed Palanivel.”

“Of course there is a difference in opinions, that’s normal, but it does not mean we will discard agreements from before,” the council member added.

Last night, Najib said he would be meeting with MIC president, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, to discuss the matter of the BN candidate for Hulu Selangor.

“I will have a meeting with the MIC president,” he said after chairing an Umno supreme council meeting at the party headquarters.

Najib, who is also chairman of BN, was responding to a statement from Samy Vellu nominating Palanivel as the coalition’s candidate for the upcoming by-election.

At the same time, Umno Selangor was also pushing for the seat to be given to the Malay party, and had touted former mentri besar Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib as a possible runner.

The Hulu Selangor seat fell vacant following the death of Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad two days ago.

Zainal Abidin won the seat in Election 2008, defeating Palanivel by a wafer-thin 198-vote majority.

The Election Commission will announce the date for the by-election this Friday.

courtesy of Malaysian Insider