BN looking good as polling closes

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani and Yow Hong Chieh

March 06, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Barisan Nasional (BN) appears to have fulfilled early predictions of victory in the twin by-elections in Kerdau and Merlimau as voting ended at 5pm.

Exit polls in Kerdau point to a comfortable win for Umno’s Syed Ibrahim Syed Ahmad in the Pahang state assembly seat.

PAS vice president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man also appeared to concede defeat despite an encouraging turnout of 7,480 voters, or 83 per cent.

The PAS election director for Kerdau said he expects Hassanuddin Salim to trim BN’s 2008 majority of 1,615 to less than 1,000 votes.

Umno had won the seat by polling 4,135 votes to PAS’s 2,520 in the last general election.

The rural seat is overwhelmingly Malay, with 7,988 of its 8,999 voters coming from the community, and BN is pushing for an increase in majority here based on the support of Malay Felda voters who make up a third of the electorate.

Kerdau has only 454 Chinese and 298 Indian voters.

In Merlimau, Umno is confident after seeing high turnouts in areas that it considers “white” or friendly.

Umno Youth executive committee member Lokman Adam said that the majority could be as high as 3,500.

BN has been predicted to increase its 2,154-vote majority from 2008 when the late Datuk Mohamed Hidhir Abu Hassan polled 4,981 votes while Jasme Tompang brought in 2,827 for PAS.

However, PAS vice president Salahuddin Ayub said that PAS will reduce Umno’s majority by 500 votes.

This was echoed by DAP’s Kota Melaka MP Sim Tong Him who said he did not think Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would win but there was a possibility of reducing BN’s majority.

Out of 10,679 voters, 8,435 or 79 per cent had turned out to decide between local boys Roslan Ahmad, who is a Jasin Umno committee member, and Yuhaizat Abdullah, the Jasin PAS deputy chief.

Roslan queued up early this morning to cast his ballot at Sekolah Kebangsaan Merlimau 1 while Yuhaizat, who is not a voter here, accompanied his mother to vote in Chinchin at 8.30am.

There are 6,850 Malay, 2,225 Chinese and 1,567 Indian voters in the Malacca state seat.

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