Indian votes crucial to BN, says report

KUALA LUMPUR - BARISAN Nasional (BN) watchers say Indian voters can be kingmakers in a number of crucial constituencies in the 13th general election (GE13), Oriental Daily News reported today.

This is based on a number of analyses which suggest that although BN has the slight upper hand in getting Malay support, the same cannot be said with regard to attracting Chinese votes.

Given this scenario, it is understandable that BN will go all out to win Indian votes in the run-up to GE13, especially in Selangor and Perak, the two states with a sizeable number of Indian voters and which it lost in the last general election.

With this in mind, the federal government is expected to announce more goodies for the Indian community, the report said.

An Umno update on the Selangor BN showed that it only has a 48% chance of recapturing the state if the election is held now.

Sources close to Selangor BN said BN component parties in the state have been directed to touch base with the Indian community and spare no effort to win its support.

Various surveys show that while Chinese voters' support for BN is relatively low and the coalition does not have any advantage in drawing Malay votes in urban and suburban areas, there is a back swing of support towards BN among Indian voters.

However, there is no clear indication how strong the back swing is, prompting the BN to go all out to win the hearts of Indian voters.

In GE12, the wind of change caused MIC to lose in all seats it contested in Selangor and Perak.

Prior to 2008, the BN government was able to count on Indian voters. But the Hindraf gathering, discontent with then MIC chief Datuk Seri (now Tan Sri) S. Samy Vellu and incidents of temple demolition prompted the Indian voters to use the ballot box to teach BN a lesson, the report said.

Realising that it can no longer take Indian votes for granted, the federal government has made good efforts to help Indians in the implementation of policies in the last four years, particularly in citizenship and temple issues and education opportunities.

Malaysia has some 850,000 Indian voters who account for over 15% of the electorate in 26 parliamentary seats. In 2008, except for Bagan Datoh, BN lost all 10 parliamentary constituencies that have 20% or more Indian voters, including Sungai Siput which saw Samy Vellu losing his long-held seat.

-thesundaily