The Gerakan acting president, who only announced in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon that he would contest the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat, said he picked Batu Kawan because of many upcoming development projects in the area.
"Before deciding which seat I will be contesting, I must put (the interest of) other candidates as priority before me," he said after distributing "ang pow" packets to villagers.
He described Batu Kawan as not a "safe" seat because in the 2004 general election, Gerakan central committee member Huan Cheng Guan only managed a slim win against two opposition candidates -- Law Choo Kiang of Party Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and A.Tanasekharan of Democratic Action Party (DAP).
"Batu Kawan has many future development projects, including the Second Link from Batu Maung (on the island) and as such, I as the CM (Chief Minister), has the responsiblity to go down to the field to ensure that everything goes on smoothly," he said, adding that he took two months to consider which area to contest.
Koh said that although the voters at Batu Kawan had been very supportive of Barisan Nasional, there was still much to be done to ensure victory for BN.
"This area has around 47,000 voters and I believe with all our hard work, we are confident of doing well here," he said.
As Chief Minister, he said it was his responsibility to ensure that Penangites enjoyed new levels of development.
"I practise the equal development concept and I hope to bring more development to this area," he added.
Koh is expected to face DAP's Prof. P. Ramasamy, a former university lecturer. -- Bernama
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