Mukhriz: Non-Malay voters tend to support sitting govt in by-elections

SLIM POLLS | Pejuang president Mukhriz Mahathir was in solemn mood as he reflected upon the reasons for the humiliating defeat suffered by independent candidate Amir Khusyairi Mohamad Tanusi in the Slim by-election today.

"It is a habit of non-Malay voters to support the government candidate in by-elections.

"This is because any allocation at the state or federal level will continue to be channelled (if the incumbent wins)," Mukhriz said at a press conference in Slim River tonight.

Also present were his candidate Amir Khusyairi, Kubang Pasu MP Amiruddin Hamzah and Senator Marzuki Yahya.

Pejuang, which is a splinter party of Bersatu, suffered a stunning defeat, losing at all district polling centres (PDM) which had a Chinese and Indian majority.

This was different from the last GE14 when Bersatu candidate Mohd Amran Ibrahim contested on a PKR ticket and won, sweeping six such centres with most of them having Chinese and Indian majority voters.

Slim has 23,181 voters of which 75 percent of voters are Malays, followed by Indians (13 percent), Chinese (10 percent) and others (two percent).

However, Mukhriz, who is the Jerlun MP,  was defiant on Pejuang's future prospects.

"In the general election, the situation may change. So we welcome the lesson of this Slim by-election. At the same time we would like to state that we are better prepared to face the next GE," he added.

BN candidate Mohd Zaidi Aziz won the Slim by-election, inflicting a heavy defeat on two independent candidates, Amir and the other S Santharasekaran.

According to official results, Zaidi won with a majority of 10,945 votes when he garnered 13,060 votes compared to Amir who got 2,115 votes and Santharasekaran with 276 votes.

The turnout was 68.4 percent. Amir managed to get 13.6 percent, indicating he did not lose the deposit. Santharasekaran, on the other hand, lost his deposit when he only got 1.79 percent of the vote.

One-third did not go out to vote

Mukhriz touched on the low voter turnout, saying that almost a third of the total 23,181 voters did not cast their votes.

"One thing that is quite interesting is the voters who did not go out to vote," he said adding that almost 35 percent of young voters did not go to the polls for this by-election.

"Usually, 45 percent to 48 percent are young voters in one constituency. This is in contrast to the statement issued by BN, which is claiming that the young voters support their party.

"Actually, according to our review, many of these young voters did not go to the polls," he said.

The by-election was held following the death of Slim assemblyperson Mohd Khusairi Abdul Talib on July 15.

In GE14, the late Mohd Khusairi won with a majority of 2,183 votes defeating Mohd Amran Ibrahim, the Bersatu candidate contesting on a PKR ticket, and PAS candidate, Muhammad Zulfadli Zainal. - Mkini