Batang AI: The Tsunami Has Started
The outcome of the Batang Ai By-election showed that the BN won by a majority of 1854 votes. Compared with the majority of 806 votes won in 2006, it would seem that the BN has improved on their performance.
However, that does not tell the whole story. To understand further, we need to study the story of the fourteen ballot boxes – the ballot boxes that were shifted unaccompanied by PKR from the polling centre to the counting centre in Lubok Antu.
In 2006, Nicholas Bawin, standing on a SNAP ticket won in these 14 voting centres by 392 votes. To change the results, the SPR changed the procedure from counting at the polling centre to shifting the ballot boxes to another place (the same old trick that they did in the past in West Malaysia). This time round, PKR lost by 272 votes. This represents a swing of 664 votes and if these 664 votes had been credited to PKR, BN would still have won by 526 votes. Fair enough. That was what was predicted by the bookies anyway.
But it is useful to understand how the SPR tricked PKR.
