Negeri may be heading for a stalemate

BN and Pakatan party workers are not too sure their respective coalition can win a two-thirds majority to form the next state goverment.

SEREMBAN: With only a few hours to go before polling ends, Negeri Sembilan appears to be heading for a stalemate. Both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat grassroots leaders are unsure whether their respective coalition will retain or form the new government.

FMT carried out a quick survey of a few “hot seats” up to midnight yesterday to find out the chances of BN and Pakatan in this hotly contested 13th general election.

Party workers from both camps who have been campaigning door to door could not give a convincing answer as to whether BN or Pakatan can emerge the victor today.

Their standard response is: “The voters have been very positive towards our candidates.” They stopped short of saying BN or Pakatan can score a two-thirds majority for the State Legislative Assembly.

Based on their feedback, it seems the two rivals could be heading for a draw.

Even the candidates from both sides of the political divide in these constituencies gave “safe” answers like “so far so good” and “so far the response from the voters has been encouraging”.

The seats where BN and Pakatan may have equal chances of winning are Ampangan, Sikamat, Labu, Pilah, Jeram Padang and Klawang.

This means BN and Pakatan are sure of winning only 15 state seats each out of a total of 36 state seats.

BN should win in Pertang, Sungai Lui, Serting, Palong, Juasseh, Senaling, Johol, Sri Menanti, Gemas, Gemencheh, Kota, Chembong, Rantau, Bagan Pinang and Linggi.

Solid support

Pakatan should cruise to victory in Chennah, Bahau, Repah, Paroi, Lenggeng, Nilai, Temiang, Lobak, Bukit Kepayang, Mambau, Rahang, Senawang, Chuah, Lukut and Port Dickson.

But if both BN and Pakatan win 18 state seats each, then who will form the next state government? This is something that has never happened in Negeri Sembilan, but it may become a reality today.

On parliamentary seats, Telok Kemang is the only parliamentary seat where both BN and Pakatan have an equal chance of winning. But the edge is with Pakatan due to the overwhelming Chinese support for PKR. Chinese form 33.81% of the voters in Telok Kemang.

DAP should win Seremban and Rasah parliamentary seats with bigger majority this time. Chinese support for Pakatan candidates seems solid.

DAP ceramahs in these two constituencies have been attracting more than 15, 000 people almost every night during the past 15 days.

Last night, a DAP ceramah at Seremban Jaya drew a record 50, 000 people and 85% of them are Chinese and 15% Indians. Only a handful of Malays turned up.

MCA and Gerakan are expected to lose all the seats they are contesting in Negeri Sembilan based on the very strong Chinese backing for Pakatan.

By contrast, PAS and PKR ceramahs were only able to attract about 1,000 people except for one mega ceramah attended by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim in Seremban on Tuesday night.

This shows that Pakatan is still facing problems in trying to win over the majority of the Malay voters especially in Jempol, Jelebu, Tampin, Rembau and Kuala Pilah.

Thus may mean that BN may retain parliamentary seats of Jempol, Kuala Pilah, Rembau, Tampin and Jelebu without much problem. However, PAS’s Wan Aishah Wan Ariffin is expected to give former menteri besar Mohd Isa Abdul Samad a run for his money in the parliamentary seat of Jempol.

So watch out for the results from 7pm tonight. There could be many surprises in store for Negeri Sembilan.