Dr M: Pakatan still a force to reckon with
(Free Malaysia Today) – While the Barisan Nasional leadership and media trumpet the Hulu Selangor by-election victory, the coalition’s grandmaster however warned that Pakatan Rakyat is still a formidable opponent. In Sunday’s electoral battle, BN’s P Kamalathan defeated PKR’s Zaid Ibrahim with a majority of 1,725 votes to snatch the parliamentary seat from the opposition party.
However, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad pointed out that Hulu Selangor is a large constituency with nearly 64,000 voters.
“Although BN garnered 24,997 votes, Pakatan managed to get 23,272 votes. Obviously Pakatan is still a force to reckon with,” he said in his latest blog posting.
Hulu Selangor, which was regarded as a BN safe seat, fell into PKR’s hands during the 2008 general election, when MIC deputy president G Palanivel was defeated by Zainal Abidin Ahmad with a razor-thin majority of 198 votes.
Prior to that, Palanivel, a four-term MP, used to win with thumping majorities, which surpassed the 10,000 mark.
In this by-election, Zaid managed to put on an impressive performance despite going against the entire might of the BN machinery, with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin hitting the campaign trail.
Even Mahathir made a surprise appearance, despite saying earlier that he did not care, and jumped on the “moral” bandwagon, attacking Zaid as an alcoholic and gambler.
Zaid was also said to be hampered by an “incompetent” PKR machinery and was rumoured to have been sabotaged by some party leaders who view him as a stumbling block to their ambitions.
