BN’s election director for the Melaka state polls, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, says there are five female candidates out of the 28 named. – Picture by Hari Anggara
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 – Barisan Nasional’s (BN) line-up of 28 candidates for the upcoming Melaka state election will see 86 per cent or 24 of them being new faces, with just four being incumbents, the coalition announced today.
Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, BN’s election director for the Melaka state polls, also said there are five female candidates out of the 28 named.
“Five women, four from Umno, one from MCA,” he said, comparing it to just two female candidates from the coalition previously in the previous election.
In announcing the 28 candidates from BN as the coalition goes alone into the polls without any allies, Mohamad also said that 28 per cent of the 28 candidates are aged below 45 years old.
“Our candidates, many of them are aged below 50 years old, and from various professions, there are medical doctors, lawyers, engineers and others.
“But we combine both those with experience and those who are young, with the hope that the Melaka government that we can form after the state elections will be able to be a government that can govern well, and there we are able to bring prosperity to the people of Melaka,” he said in the announcement that was streamed live on Facebook.
The 28 candidates are be 20 from Umno, seven from MCA, and one from MIC.
While reading out the names, Mohamad remarked that candidate Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali is BN’s “poster boy” to be the next Melaka chief minister if the coalition wins the Melaka state polls.
He was announcing Sulaiman as BN’s candidate for the Lendu state seat.
Umno’s Sulaiman was the Melaka chief minister until the state government’s collapse, following the October 3 withdrawal of support from four state assemblymen.
The 28-seat Melaka state assembly was dissolved on October 4 after four assemblymen declared they would no longer support Sulaiman, which then led to the Melaka state election with nomination day on November 8 and voting day on November 20.
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