Umno information chief Azalina Othman Said said the people of a constituency would be the losers if a chosen candidate could not serve the constituency because he is always away, Bernama reported.

Samsuri, 53, a PAS vice-president and state assemblyman for Ru Redang, was named by PAS last night as the Perikatan Nasional candidate for the Kemaman parliamentary by-election on Dec 2.

Azalina said Barisan Nasional did not feel threatened by Samsuri’s candidacy.

She said the BN candidate, former chief of defence forces Raja Affandi Raja Noor, was the better choice as he is from Kemaman. “We at BN offer someone who will serve BN and the voters in Kemaman,” she said. “For me, when choosing an MP, the priority for a candidate is someone who can provide service.”

She said she was confident that Raja Affandi would focus on Kemaman voters as his main agenda.

The Kemaman parliamentary by-election was called following an election court decision last month to nullify the victory of Che Alias Hamid, from PAS, in the general election in November last year. The court held that the distribution of government aid during the election campaign amounted to bribery.