In Teluk Intan, DAP tipped for smaller victory
(Malay Mail Online) – The Chinese community’s disenchantment with Barisan Nasional (BN) is set to give DAP victory in today’s Teluk Intan by-election, political analysts predicted.
While DAP’s gamble in fielding a young Malay woman in the Chinese-majority constituency previously raised the spectre of communal voting, the analysts expect that the community’s backing for the party will be enough to see it keep the federal seat.
“Putting aside racial line, Chinese will vote for DAP. Malays will vote for BN, they still believe government is supporting them.
“Teluk Intan is not dominated by BN and DAP, voters there are rational. They will vote based on issues,” Associate Professor Datuk Mohammad Agus Yusoff, specialising in politics, said.
While BN has campaigned on local development, Mohammad Agus noted that it was the national issues such as the new Goods and Services Tax (GST), inflation, and corruption that were resonating with voters.
Mohammad Agus predicted a DAP win by as many as 3,400 votes, should the turnout be high and enough outstation voters return.
He noted that while the Chinese vote was largely in the bag for DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, older Malay voters were expected to go towards BN’s Datuk Mah Siew Keong,
“Chinese, especially, they do not trust BN, so they will vote for DAP.”
Despite both camps seeing a close race, Professor Jayum Jawan, who specialises in politics and government, provided a gloomy reading for BN’s chances.
“Gerakan is a gone case, nothing,” Jayum said when noting that the only question was how much of the Malay vote Dyana will be able to pull from BN.
He added that the Chinese community will look past Dyana’s ethnicity and throw its support behind DAP.
Monash University’s political science lecturer James Chin called the Teluk Intan poll a “political death move” for Gerakan, saying that Mah carried political “baggage” as a leader under BN.
“Gerakan is BN,” Chin said. “Chinese will always associate BN with Umno, and Chinese equate Umno to institutionalised racism.”
Chin added that fielding Dyana was DAP’s way to gauge its appeal among Malay voters in urban areas where it traditionally secured the Chinese community’s support.
The Chinese form the largest vote-bank in Teluk Intan at 42 per cent of the electorate, while the Malays make up 38 per cent of voters in the semi-urban constituency.
The parliamentary constituency consists of the predominantly Malay and rural Changkat Jong, as well as the predominantly Chinese and urban Pasir Bedamar state constituencies.
Polling centres opened this morning for the by-election triggered by the death of DAP’s Seah Leong Peng on May 1 and the result is expected to be in at 9pm.
