‘Entice Chinese, Fence Sitters To Reduce Majority’, FMT, 21 February 2014

P Ramani

 | February 21, 2014

Political analysts view that BN can reduce Pakatan's majority in the Kajang by-election with the right strategy.

PETALING JAYA: It is possible to reduce the majority in the Kajang by-election if Barisan Nasional can entice the Chinese voters and fence sitters, said Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) political science expert Prof Mustafa Ishak.
Mustafa said the BN should find a way to entice the Chinese voters as one of its strategies.
“BN must find ways to attract the Chinese community through the MCA but it will not wok overnight. Gradually there is a possibity for change,” he said.
He added that BN should also pull the fence sitters to their side to give a good fight.
Mustafa said BN might announce MCA’s Chew Mei Fun as the candidate and the party vice-president was an icon among the Chinese community which could probably favour BN.
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) political analyst Prof Sivamurugan Pandian said Anwar had a better chance than the other candidates because PKR had managed to increase their majority from 3,000 to 6,000 in the last general election.
“If other candidates can reduce the majority it will be seen as a morale victory for BN,” he added.
Sivamurugan said the BN should field a candidate preferred by Kajang voters and use the right campaign strategy to reduce the majority.
A survey was done by Universiti Malaya Centre of Democracy and Election (Umcedel) on Feb 14 and 15 showed that 59% of the voters wanted the by-election so that Anwar could become the Selangor Menteri Besar while 93% said it was not a waste of public funds.
Some 42% of the voters said the PKR-engineered by-election was necessary to solve the party’s internal politics, while only 20% disagreed.
The number of respondents sampled was 576 which is 1.47% of the 39,728 voters in Kajang.
Umcedel defended the validity of their research, saying that the respondents were interviewed in person through a random sampling method.
Prof Zaharom Nain, a political observer from Notthingham University Malaysia campus, said a sampling strategy was vital in any survey.
He said choosing the right sampling strategy would give credibility to the survey, adding that UM polls had carried trustworthy results until today.
Zaharom said even in a random survey the researcher simply could not choose the respondents but had to identify the target group they wanted to interview.
He added that Anwar had a clear chance of winning this battle and independent candidates would not be a major threat.
The seat fell vacant following the resignation of incumbent assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh of PKR on Jan 27. The Election Commission has set March 11 for nomination and March 23 for polling.
The Kajang state seat comprises 39,728 registered voters. It has 48% Malay voters, Chinese 41%, Indian 10% and others 1%.
The voter turnout in the last general election in May last year was 87.9%, with 541 spoilt votes.
The by-election, however, will not have a bearing on who runs the state as Pakatan Rakyat has 44 seats in the 56-seat state assembly - FMT