Five women to contest in Ampang ‘hot seat’

05 Nov 2022 02:18pm

Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin (middle) with the other candidates for the Ampang parliamentary seat. - BERNAMA

AMPANG - The Ampang parliamentary seat said to be the "hot seat" in Selangor will see five women contesting as candidates in the 15th General Election (GE15).

In GE14, the seat's incumbent Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin who is also former PKR vice-president won the Ampang parliamentary seat under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ticket before leaving the party during the "Sheraton Move".

In GE15, Zuraida who held the seat for three terms will be facing Rodziah Ismail (PH), Ivone Low Yi Wen (BN) and Dr Nurul Ashikin Mabahwi (GTA).

The other six candidates were Sasha Lyna Abdul Latif (PN), Bryan Lai Wai Chong (Warisan), Raveendra Marnokaran (Independent), Muhammad Shafiq Izwan Mohd Yunos (Independent) and Tan Hua Meng (Independent).

Zuraida when met said a total of nine candidates will be contesting in the seat and five were women.

This, she said showed the maturity of the country and democratic system.

"I am happy that there are five female candidates, there are young people who are running for the election and this shows that the time has come for Malaysians to be more mature and for young people and brave women to come forward.

"I celebrate (the participation) even though after four terms contesting, this is the most number of candidates which is a total of nine candidates, three Independents and six (who) belong to parties.

"I believe that Ampang voters can evaluate the best candidate for the people of Ampang including evaluating my service for 15 years through my work in Ampang," she said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, one of the candidates from her former party, Rodziah, said Malaysia practices a democratic system in which the participation of candidates involved in GE15 should be celebrated.

Earlier, Rodziah was accompanied by director and famous actor Datuk Hans Isaac and rapper Syed Ahmad Abdul Rahman Alhadad or Altimet to the nomination centre.

The two celebrities accompanied Rodziah to the vicinity of Dewan Dato Ahmad Razali, here, at 9.03am to submit the nomination form.

Rodziah's candidacy was proposed by Altimet who is also the PKR branch head, supported by Hans Isaac.