KUALA LUMPUR: Federal Territories Barisan Nasional candidate line-up for the 14th general election (GE14) has been described as a team of “village heads”, as they were picked based on the preferences of grassroots and the people.
Federal Territories BN chairman Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who will be returning to defend the Putrajaya parliamentary seat, said that apart from him, each of the other 12 candidates possessed unique strengths and stellar track record to help steer the coalition to victory.
“This team of village heads will serve the people. Although we are running for urban seats, we want to instill this concept of ‘kampung’ (to form close rapport with everyone within the same community).
“We want to be ears and eyes of the people. We walk our talk. We work for the people not only during election season, unlike the opposition,” Tengku Adnan told a press conference.
He said the fact that the BN list included three new faces for the seats of Bandar Tun Razak, Bukit Bintang and Seputeh, did not change BN’s chances of performing admirably.
Tengku Adnan said the team would be using the hashtag #teamketuakampung for its campaign.
He added that the list included five major come backs for experienced team members, most notably Tan Sri Zulhasnan Rafique’s return to run for the Setiawangsa seat.
“The reason why we field Zulhasnan there is because we want to win big in the seat.”
At the same time, Tengku Adnan revealed that that MCA had agreed to let Umno contest for seat of Bandar Tun Razak, while the former would race for Wangsa Maju.
“The Wangsa Maju was actually loaned to us (Umno) by MCA in the previous election. As for Bandar Tun Razak, I thank MCA for allowing Umno to run for the seat, and increase our chances to win.”
Tengku Adnan said another seat that was loaned to another BN component party was Segambut.
“Segambut was traditionally held by Gerakan, but will now will be contested by MyPPP.
“We have a concept on reaching consensus in BN, and we always support each other. We are unique (compared to the opposition).
On Federal Territories BN manifesto, Tengku Adnan said it would not use so much from the government’s coffers but contribution from the private sector.
“Our approach is different. We do not use so much of goverment money, but mostly initiatives by the private sector.”