Tenang By-Election : A Battle Of Women Candidates?

By Alan Ting

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 (Bernama) -- It may be the country's 14th by-election since 2008, but the Tenang contest on Jan 30 is likely to be the first between two women.

No political party has announced its candidate yet, but there are already signs that both Barisan Nasional and PAS could field a woman candidate.

A local woman leader of PAS resigning her teaching post last month after giving 24 hours notice has only fueled the speculation.

PAS finalised a list of two candidates, both locals, at its central committee meeting here last Sunday.

However, the party will only announce its choice at a party function in Tenang on Sunday, just days before the Jan 22 nomination.

Party sources said the former teacher, 38-year-old Normala Sudirman, who is the women's head in the Labis PAS division, is one of the two.

However, party secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali, when contacted today, declined to reveal their names, only saying that the candidate would be known on Jan 16.

But he confirmed that the party have selected two people, including a woman, both proposed by the PAS Johor state liaison committee.

Just as talk grows rife of PAS seriously considering a woman for the Tenang by-election, word is going around that BN will probably do the same.

Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abd Jalil intensifid speculation today when she called on the BN top leadership to choose a woman candidate.

And she told reporters that she had forwarded the name of Labis Wanita Umno leader Haslinda Salleh as candidate.

Hailing from Chaah, Businesswoman Haslinda is said to be one of the three potential candidates.

The other two are Rusdin Mahmud, an assistant headmaster and Umno Labis division deputy chief, and Hashim Daud, a retired headmaster who is the Labis Umno division vice-chairman.

BN is expected to announce its candidate on Jan 18 for the by-election which follows the death of BN assemblyman Datuk Sulaiman Taha on Jan 17 due to diabetes-related blood infection.

However, the by-election may turn into a three-corner fight with G. Sivanandan, a 50-year-old member of the National Union of Plantation Workers, expressing his intention to contest as an independent.

Sivanandan had said that he wanted to use the by-election as a platform to voice the problems of some 800 estate workers in the constituency.

Even so, the by-election will, to all intents and purposes, be a fight between BN and PAS.