BN appears to have an edge over rivals
By Free Malaysia Today
SANDAKAN: After the first half or leg of the 10-day campaigning period, Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Linda Tsen, the widow of the late Edmund Chong Ket Wah, appears to be in a better position to win the Batu Sapi parlimentary by-election on Nov 4.
Although the ground reality is not clear for her to take absolute comfort, political pundits here believe split opposition votes between Yong Teck Lee of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and PKR’s Ansari Abdullah will be to her advantage in this by-election.
The Batu Sapi parlimentary seat consist of two state seats – Karamunting and Sekong.
Most political pundits opined that the BN candidate held the edge, especially with Bumiputera Muslim voters over PKR and SAPP particularly in Sekong, a stronghold of Umno, and is involved in a neck-and-neck contest for the more than 9,000 Chinese votes in the area, notably in Karamunting.
However, they believed that with Chief Minister Musa Aman as the director of operations, and with Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin campaigning for BN, the Chinese support in Batu Sapi might probably tilt in favour of the ruling coalition.
Citing the results of the 2008 state election for the Inanam constituency, the political pundits said that the BN candidate from PBS won the seat simply because of the split opposition votes and it would not be surprising if this happened again in Batu Sapi.
“If we look at the number of votes garnered by PBS of slightly more than 5,000 and the combined votes for the opposition – DAP and PKR of more than 7,000 – in Inanam in the last state election, it showed that the split votes gave an advantage to the BN.
“This time in Batu Sapi, the BN candidate is also facing two opposition parties – SAPP and PKR.
Sabah politics fluid
On paper, Tsen appears to be in a better position to retain the seat for BN but Sabah politics is always fluid and anything can happen,” they said.
SAPP, on the other hand, is confident of securing more than half of the Chinese votes and its campaigners claimed that Yong, a former chief minister, has gained ground, but whether the local-based party will achieve even 50% of the votes is a million-dollar question for political pundits and the people of Sabah at large.
PKR is also optimistic about pulling off a surprise win. Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim was quoted as saying yesterday that “the party is gaining ground in its campaign in Batu Sapi”. This is left to be seen as the BN and opposition parties have five more campaigning days to win the hearts and minds of the voters.
However, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president VK Liew is upbeat on BN retaining the seat.
