MCA has identified a local as the potential candidate to contest the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat which is now held by DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, during the 14th General Election (GE14) said MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

Liow said the candidate was well received and liked by residents and has been instructed to start work at the grassroots level.

"We have identified the candidate and have begun work. But we will leave it to the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) to make the final decision," he told reporters after opening the empower East Coast Economic Region (ECER) Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Centre Bentong-Sabai here, today.

Liow, who is also Transport Minister, said this when asked to comment on a statement by Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin that the Johor Barisan Nasional (BN) had agreed to field a MCA candidate to contest the seat.

In the 13th general election in 2013, Kit Siang beat former Johor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Othman by a 14,762-vote majority.

About DAP, Liow said, "People know that the DAP does not provide any services. They only know how to talk. People can see that only BN has core values such as solidarity and cohesion that enable it to provide the promised service, including in Gelang Patah. "

Liow said MCA would be screening their potential candidates before submitting their names to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to ensure their candidates are clean and accountable.

"It is crucial to have clean candidates to gain public trust," he said adding that MCA welcomed the initiative taken by MACC to screen the candidates for GE14. - BERNAMA