SEBERANG PERAI, Oct 11 — MCA and its fellow Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties are eyeing four additional parliamentary seats to contest in Penang for the coming general election.

Penang MCA chairman Datuk Tan Teik Cheng said the party has already submitted its four candidates for Jelutong, Bukit Bendera, Tanjung and Batu Kawan, which was previously contested by Gerakan in Election 2018 when the latter was still a BN component.

“BN component parties, Umno, MCA and MIC, had meetings to discuss this at the state level and each party was given the freedom to submit names to be fielded in the 15th general election, especially for the four parliamentary seats,” Tan told reporters after conducting an official visit to the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal here.

He said BN’s central leadership will then decide which component party will contest in the four parliamentary seats.

He stressed that there will not be any tussle between the component parties for the seats as they will abide by the final decision made by BN’s central leadership.

“We will target where we feel that we have the strength and support of the voters.

“We cannot afford to have any internal issues. We need to go into the elections as a united front,” he said.

Previously in GE14, BN contested all of the 40 state and 13 parliamentary seats in Penang.

Gerakan contested in 13 state and four parliamentary seats, Umno in 15 state seats and five parliamentary seats, MCA in 10 state seats and five parliamentary seats and MIC in two state seats.

Umno won two state seats and two parliamentary seats in GE14 while Gerakan, MCA and MIC lost in all of the seats.

Gerakan joined the Perikatan Nasional coalition in February last year after exiting BN in 2018 following its defeat in GE14.