Neck-to-neck in Hulu Selangor
By Giam Say Khoon, The Sun
KUALA KUBU BARU (April 24, 2010): The Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election tomorrow will be one of the hardest battles for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as it stands an equal ground with its opponent Barisan Nasional (BN) in a bid to hold on to the seat. Neither side seems to have an edge.
The late Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) beat incumbent MIC deputy president Datuk G. Palanivel with only 198 votes to win the seat in the 2008 general election.
He passed away on March 25 paving way for tomorrow’s by-election.
A PR official said the opposition is worried that the tactics employed by BN would be effective in capturing the support of the 32,020 (52.7%) Malay votes such as the giving out of RM5 million to 100 former Felda settlers, as well as the exploitation of drinking and gambling allegations against PR candidate Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim.
“The time is too short even for PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, who came in to campaign yesterday, to come and reassure the Malay or Muslim voters,” he said.
“We have to admit that we are losing the Malay and a small portion of Indian votes although we are still confident with the Chinese votes,” he added.
The official also pointed out “dirty” tactics like the shifting of polling stations involving 14,000 voters in the constituency by the Election Commission although the commission claimed that it was a normal exercise carried out since the last general election in 2008.
However, a PR insider sees it differently as independent research body Zentrum Future Studies Malaysia’s polls showed that BN support had dropped from 51.4% to 48.3% while the PR support has increased from 48.6% to 51.7% yesterday.
“If the voter turnout is over 70% of the total 64,500 we will still have a shot at garnering about 40% of Malay, 80% Chinese and 50% Indians votes; we can still win the seat with about 500 majority votes,” he said.
A BN supporter opines that the situation is not bad for PR but both sides stand an equal chance in this by-election.
“PR aims to get sympathy votes by making the voters believe that they are losing but they are not,” he said adding that this has been the old tactic played by the opposition, to “make us look bad and to make them look pitiful”.
“We hope that voters will vote wisely and not get conned by PR,” he said.
PKR election director Fuzziah Salleh, in a press conference today, announced that the party will be setting up complaints and logistic counters to receive complaints and help ferry the voters to the correct polling stations.
“We will mobilise thousands of workers and at least 30 cars as well as motorcycles should the traffic congestion get worse at each polling station tomorrow,” she said.
“The voters can also file their complaints with us at the PKR media centre in Kuala Kubu Baru,” she added.
There are 46 polling stations in Hulu Selangor where voters will decide between Zaid and BN’s P. Kamalanathan
