Party president Mah Siew Keong said he placed full trust and confidence in Tan to recapture the seat won by the DAP in the last general election.

He said the Jalong state seat was a Gerakan seat although the party lost it (in GE13) with quite a large majority.

“Nevertheless, we have been serving Jalong over the last four years and she (Tan) has always worked hard to win back the hearts of voters in the area.

“We have the confidence to recapture the seat. Through the spirit and cooperation among Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties, I’m sure we have a bright chance and the seat will be BN’s again,” the plantation industries and commodities minister said.

He was speaking to reporters after attending a Chinese New Year open house organised by Perak Gerakan.

The event was also attended by Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir and 3,000 others.

Mah said he had handed the party’s pick for the Jalong seat to BN chairman Najib Razak and would leave it entirely to him to pick Gerakan candidates for GE14.

Tan is a former Gerik and Bukit Gantang MP and was previously the information deputy minister and domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism deputy minister.

In GE13, the DAP’s Loh Sze Yee became the Jalong assemblyman after defeating BN’s Liew Yew Aw with a majority of 6,769 votes.

The seat comes under the Sungai Siput parliamentary constituency, which was won by PSM’s Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, who contested under the PKR banner.

The other state seat in the constituency, Lintang, is held by Dzolkafly Harun of the BN.