Polls after Deepavali?

Is Pakatan facing a wipe-out in Selangor, given the innumerable number of 'new' names on the voter list.

COMMENT

According to DAP’s Teluk Intan MP, M Manogaran, sources are speculating that the 13th general election is targeted for November but before that a big national Deepavali celebration will be held by Barisan Nasional to woo the Indian voters.

Well, we will just have to wait and see if this is true.

If indeed the polls are to be held on the last weekend of November, Parliament will have to be dissolved latest by Nov 5 as the current Parliament sitting is scheduled to go on till Nov 27.

This means that the budget will have to be re-tabled in the new parliament term. The terminology used in this matter is: “to re-do the budget”.

In the meantime, the focus is still on the controversial electoral rolls and Pakatan Rakyat. Several non-governmental organisations will be seeking to hold a rally in the Bukit Jalil Stadium on Nov 3 to protest the fact that the electoral rolls have yet to be cleaned up.

Based on the current electoral rolls, there are 10 Pakatan MPs who are most likely to lose their parliamentary seats in the 13th general election.

The 10 are:

1. Nurul Izzah Anwar (Lembah Pantai, PKR)

2. R Sivarasa (Subang, PKR)

3. William Leong (Selayang, PKR)

4. Zuraida Kamarudin (Ampang, PKR)

5. Titiwangsa (a PAS seat. A young PAS lawyer will be contesting this seat.)

6. Dr Siti Mariah (Kota Raja, PAS)

7. Dzulkefly Ahmad (Kuala Selangor, PAS)

8. Khalid Samad (Shah Alam, PAS)

9. Charles Santiago (Klang, DAP)

10.Teo Nie Ching (Serdang, DAP)

Looking at the above list, one can see that eight out of the 10 seats are in Selangor. The two KL seats are Lembah Pantai and Titiwangsa which belonged to the late Dr Lo’lo’ Ghazali of PAS.

This simply shows that Selangor is under severe threat from the BN side.

As for Nurul Izzah, in 2008 she won by a majority of 2,895 votes. Currently, there are over 10,000 new names in her constituency. Dzulkefly won by a slim margin of 862 votes in the previous general election. He too has over 10,000 new names in his constituency.

Both will need a miracle to win this time around as all their efforts and hard work may not be sufficient.

Wipe-out ahead?

So is Pakatan going to face a massive wipe-out?

The Election Commission’s (EC) stubbornness in refusing to clean up the electoral roll certainly indicates that something is afoot.

Is the EC really impartial and independent?

The Pakatan MPs have written to the EC several times to initiate a meeting in regard to the electoral roll but all to no avail.

The EC officers’ reluctance to meet with the Pakatan MPs to discuss issues pertaining to the electoral roll does not reflect well on the former’s professionalism. These officers must realise that they are public servants. The rakyat pay taxes and pay their salaries. Therefore the EC’s duty is solely towards the rakyat.

This shows that under the the Najib administration, things have become worse and the same goes for the Auditor-General’s Report.

As at time of writing, the Auditor-General’s Report is still not out yet. Sad to say, the Najib administration has the worst performance in regard to the Auditor-General’s Report.

During Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure it was always on time, sometimes one, two or even seven days earlier. If not, then the Audit-General’s Report was always on the table of all MPs on the same day that the budget is presented.

During Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s tenure, it was late at times but not more than three days late.

Najib Tun Razak’s tenure is the worst. Last year, it was 17 days late. Looks like all the hype surrounding the Key Performance Index (KPI) is just for show only as even the crime rate seems to have worsened.

Najib’s lost control

Even the influx of foreign workers has become worse.

There are daily press reports of gangfights and killings among foreign workers and this gives a bad image to the country.

No one can really comprehend why there is a need to take in so many foreign workers. Many of these foreign workers can also be seen loitering around the KL Central Market area.

They can be a threat to the safety of Malaysians when they are jobless.

Is the prime minister aware of these goings-on?

Another issue which seems to have escaped Najib’s attention is the price of foodstuffs. It has been the norm before general elections that food prices are kept low so as not to anger the voters, especially the low-income group.

But under Najib’s tenure, food prices are going up even before the electionis held and that is the reason why there is a need to give the RM500 cash aid to stave off the anger of the low-income voters.

This is surely an indication that food prices will soar if BN wins at the polls again because it can already be seen now that Najib is not really in control in regard to food prices.

Perhaps he himself is being bothered by the “date-devil” and is not concentrating fully on the job at hand due to mulling over, thinking and pondering 24/7 on when to hold the general election.

November is near and as he has mentioned, the number “11” is significant to him.

That being the case, he should stop dithering, take the bull by the horns and hold the polls in the 11th month. The polls-date game has gone on long enough.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.