Contractor who lost in state election hopes to win parliamentary seat

05 Nov 2022 07:28pm

Contractor Ismail Don, independent candidate for the 15th General Election (GE15) - BERNAMA

MERSING - Although he lost in the Johor state election in March, a contractor here has refused to be disheartened and remains steadfast to contest in the 15th General Election (GE15) as an independent candidate.

Even though he has to finance the cost himself and had contested and lost in the Endau state seat during the Johor polls, Ismail Don does not want to miss the opportunity of contesting the Mersing parliamentary seat.

In the Johor polls on March 12, the 54-year-old Ismail lost to Perikatan Nasional's (PN) Alwiyah Talib who succeeded in retaining the seat with a majority of 3,041 votes during a five-cornered contest.

"We want to make the public aware, (that) if other parties (are seen) have no responsibility to defend the people of this district apart from their leaders who have various hot issues that cause annoyance, the people can voice it to the independent candidate.

"Therefore, I hope to be given the opportunity to resolve issues plaguing residents of Mersing. By winning I can take the voice of the people to the Parliament," said the native of the district to Bernama after the nomination process at the Mersing district office here today.

He said among the issues that will be given attention are the Mersing bridge which is congested during festivals and public holidays; the network of roads that are often damaged to the extent that it is believed to cause accidents; and looking into settlers’ issues.

Ismail, who has used the logo of a tractor when contesting previously, will contest against four other contestants namely ex-Johor exco Datuk Abd Latif Bandi of Barisan Nasional (BN); Muhammad Islahuddin Abas from PN who is the political secretary to incumbent Mersing MP Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Nurfatimah Ibrahim (Pejuang) and Zulaikha Zaidi (Pakatan Harapan or PH).

In GE14, Abdul Latiff who contested on a BN ticket won the Mersing parliamentary seat after polling 19,806 votes to beat contestants from Pas and PKR.

However, having held the parliamentary seat since 1999, Abdul Latiff quit Umno in December 2018 and joined Bersatu in February 2019.

The Election Commission has set polling day as Nov 19, and early voting on Nov 15. - BERNAMA