IF ‘CHICKEN-HEARTED’ MAT HASAN WANTS TO HELP UMNO & MALAYS – HE SHOULD CONTEST A FEDERAL SEAT: RANTAU A WIDE OPEN RACE – DR STRERAM MAY SCORE THE ‘MOTHER OF ALL UPSET VICTORIES’

REMBAU: Perak PKR vice-chairman Tan Kar Hing believes the numbers are in favour of Pakatan Harapan (PH) for the Rantau by-election.

Tan believes PH candidate Dr S. Streram would have won the seat in the 14th general election (GE14) had he been allowed to file his nomination papers.

Tan based his findings on the results for the Rembau parliamentary seat in GE14. Rantau is one of four state seats in the Rembau constituency, the others being Paroi, Kota and Chembong.

Tan pointed out that BN candidate for the Rembau seat, Khairy Jamaluddin, won most of his votes in Kota and Chembong, while his opponent Lt-Col Roseli Abdul Gani of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, a component of PH, scraped through in Paroi but won the votes in Rantau.

Khairy won the Rembau seat by a 4,364-vote majority. The constituency has 88,365 registered voters.

“Datuk Seri Mohamed Hasan won the Rantau seat by default,” he said. “Technically, Streram won the seat, given that majority of the votes from that constituency went to PH.”

Tan said the numbers have given PH reasons to be optimistic.

Streram was disallowed to file his nomination papers for the seat for GE14 because he forgot to bring his identification tag along, paving the way for Mohamed to win the seat unopposed.

The Election Court later declared his victory null and void. The by-election has been fixed for April 13.

Tan believes the demographics are also in favour of Streram. Of the 29,926 registered voters in Rantau, 55% are Malays, 26% are Indians and 18% are Chinese.

He felt that with the voters split almost evenly between Malays and non-Malays, the results could likely be in PH’s favour. He added that the lack of balanced development in Rantau would also work in Streram’s favour.

“Apart from Sendayan, the other parts of the constituency are still not developed,” he said.

However, Tan did not take into account Mohamed’s record. He has consistently won the seat since he first contested in 2003, garnering well over 60% of the votes in each election.

He had served three terms as mentri besar of Negri Sembilan and is held in high regard in the state.

Khairy: Rantau by-election can’t be taken lightly

REMBAU: The Rantau state seat by-election can’t be taken lightly, says Rembau Member of Parliament Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said although the state seat is deemed as Umno’s stronghold, Barisan Nasional (BN) needs to retain victory as the outcome will have a greater impact not only on the state but also to the country.

“Although BN’s candidate Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan is seen as a winnable candidate, we can’t take the Rantau by-election lightly.

“We need to maintain the momentum from Cameron Highland and Semenyih by-elections which had clearly shown positive impacts after Tok Mat took over the task as Umno’s acting president from Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,” he said during a ceramah held at BN’s operation centre in Pekan Saga here, tonight.

Meanwhile, Mohamad said his victory would enable him to continue his role as Opposition leader in state to conduct the check and balance on the government.

“As the Opposition, we are responsible to check on the government’s policy and decision which should benefit the people,” he said – NST

THE SUN DAILY

NST