Warisan to field ex-heavyweights in 2 KL seats

Warisan will be fielding two ex-MPs for the Pandan and Wangsa Maju seats, in a move that could split the votes of Pakatan Harapan (PH) supporters.

The Sabah-based party announced former MCA president Ong Tee Keat for Pandan, where PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli will contest in his bid for a parlimentary comeback.

Meanwhile, former DAP man Wee Choo Keong will be vying for a return to Wangsa Maju, the seat he wrested from Barisan Nasional on a PKR ticket in 2008 before leaving the party a year later.

Ong was the MCA president until his defeat in 2010 by Chua Soi Lek, costing him his Cabinet position.

In 2013, owing to his quarrel with the MCA leadership, Ong was not chosen to defend the Pandan seat where he had been the MP for two terms. The seat was won by Rafizi, and later by Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in the 2018 polls.

Wee meanwhile was once a senior DAP leader who represented the Bukit Bintang constituency before falling out with the party leadership.

In 2008, running under PKR, he beat the incumbent MCA candidate by a 150-vote majority.

Wee said he had chosen to contest on a Warisan ticket due to its president Shafie Apdal, adding that he was a "good national leader with a proven track record of 35 years".

He also took PH to task, saying the coalition had been inconsistent as an opposition force in entering into an agreement with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

"What is important is that we give the people a real alternative in GE15. We don’t need an opposition that signed an MoU and received RM3.7 million into their account," he said, referring to the allocations given to PH MPs.

He also accused PH of being two-faced with its supporters when voting in support of government bills including the budget.

"Outside Parliament they will say that it was a failed government. It is a question of saying one thing and doing another," Wee told MalaysiaNow.