Puad Zarkashi declares support for Pakatan’s Rengit hopeful, says choice based on personality

JOHOR BAHRU, July 4 — Former Umno supreme council member Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi has today declared his support for Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Rengit candidate Mohamad Yazid Bakri for the Johor state election.

The former Johor state assembly speaker and Rengit assemblyman had openly expressed his support for PH’s Mohamad Yazid through a campaign poster.

Puad said he made his decision based on the candidate's personality and not on partisan party lines.

“I am presently not in any (political) party. I choose the candidate because of his personality. Therefore, I chose Saudara Yazid (Mohamad Yazid),” said the outspoken politician on his official Facebook page.

Puad also listed five reasons for supporting the PH hopeful – he is a native of Rengit, lives in the area, owns a house in Rengit, and is the Rengit surau chairman.

The catchy poster also carried the slogan ‘Orang Rengit Jaga Rengit’ which translates to Rengit people will take care of their own. The poster also displayed the candidate’s number and PH symbol to urge voters to support Mohamad Yazid.

Puad, once known as an Umno stalwart and staunch Barisan Nasional (BN) supporter, announced his exit from the party and its component with immediate effect on June 25.

He had earlier accused Johor menteri besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who is also the state’s BN chairman, of non-compliance and deviation when announcing the dissolution of the state assembly that paved the way for the state election.

Following that, Umno secretary-general Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki claimed that Puad had threatened to leave the party and publicly criticised the matter if his son was not nominated for the Rengit seat ahead of the state poll.

In the 2022 Johor state election, Puad won the Rengit state seat with a 1,920 majority vote. He obtained 7,903 votes in total, defeating three other candidates from Perikatan Nasional (PN), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang).

Puad was previously the Batu Pahat MP and was Deputy Minister of Education II from 2009 to 2013 during Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s BN administration.

In the 2013 general election, he was defeated by the then Pakatan Rakyat (PR) candidate from PKR, Mohd Idris Jusi.

Puad later came to national prominence as the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) director-general from 2015 until his resignation in 2018 after he was not fielded as the Batu Pahat parliamentary candidate.

Prior to that, Puad was the political secretary to the previous Johor menteri besar Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Othman.