BN wins but slips up on Chinese support

(MI) – The Rasa Chinese primary school is RM3 million richer today from a campaign promise after Barisan Nasional (BN) won yesterday’s Hulu Selangor by-election but the ruling federal coalition is concerned that it failed to garner greater Chinese support.

BN secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said it might have won the seat with a 1,725-vote majority but the coalition has to improve support from the Chinese community, which again turned its back on the BN this by-election and in Election 2008.BN received nearly 28 per cent of the Chinese vote in Hulu Selangor yesterday, down from 37 per cent in Election 2008.

“We have to see where we are going wrong. I will meet other component parties to discuss this matter but we are glad that the Indian votes are coming back. The Malays too have backed the BN,” he said last night after the results were announced.

P. Kamalanathan won the hard-fought Hulu Selangor by-election in what will be seen as a boost for Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration, but failed to convincingly bury a strong PR.

The BN candidate 24,997 votes to defeat PKR’s Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, who got 23,272 votes. There were 731 spoilt votes, of the total of 48,935 votes cast. Voter turnout was 75.87 per cent. Both coalitions improved on their performance but BN took in 2,000 more votes this time, against Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) 200 extra votes.

“We lost this seat at the 2008 general election with a slim 198 vote majority and have now retained it with a bigger majority. This shows that the people are receptive to the leadership’s concept like 1 Malaysia and the new economic model,” Tengku Adnan said after the results of the by-election were announced.

Najib had called the country’s 10th by-election a referendum of his year-long leadership but he took to the campaign in the last three days and promised election goodies, including the RM3 million aid to rebuild the Rasa school.

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