Sungai Bakap campaign lacked cohesion, PKR leaders say
PKR leaders have acknowledged that the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) national unity campaign for the Sungai Bakap by-election lacked cohesion.
(TMI) – This supposedly contributed towards the rout the national unity government suffered at the hands of Perikatan Nasional (PN), even though the unity candidate Joohari Ariffin had better credentials than PN’s Abidin Ismail.
Abidin won with 4,267 votes – a near threefold increase over last year’s 1,563 – with a significant decline in Chinese and Indian voter turnout.
Penang PKR deputy chairman Muhammed Bakhtiar Wan Chik conceded the lack of cohesion could be seen as a major reason for the defeat.
He said social media had changed the campaigning game and there was room for improvement.
“We were told that some quarters were sending messages to many Chinese voters via their personal WhatsApp numbers in Sungai Bakap to boycott the election to signal protest over the removal of diesel and the water surcharges which Penang imposed.”
