KUALA LUMPUR: Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil openly declares her support for Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin as the Lembah Pantai Barisan Nasional candidate in the coming general election.

The former Lembah Pantai MP said there was no one more qualified for the post than Raja Nong Chik, who is also an Umno Supreme Council member, due to his hard work in the constituency.

Shahrizat, also the former Women, Family and Community Development Minister, said: “Actually, I have supported Datuk Raja Nong Chik since three years ago, but I’m declaring it only today.

“This is because we had been working together for 15 years when I was the Lembah Pantai MP for three terms,” she told a press conference here yesterday. Raja Nong Chik was also present.

Shahrizat was Lembah Pantai MP from 1995 after she defeated former chief justice Tun Mohamad Salleh Abas from Semangat 46 with a 13,361-vote majority, but failed to retain her seat in the 2008 general election.

In that elections, she lost to PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, who had a 2,895-vote majority.

Raja Nong Chik said he always had a good relationship with Shahrizat, although there were allegations that he had caused the end of her political career.

“I used to sit next to Datuk Seri Shahrizat in the Cabinet. I admit that sometimes we had differences of opinion but we had never quarrelled.

“Actually, it’s the Opposition who wish to see us quarrel. They want Umno to be divided so that they can easily win (the elections),” he said.

— Bernama