Guan Eng smashes Najib, 'polls not a badminton game'

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has mocked Umno for saying that general elections are akin to a badminton game, and that the player who wins the most sets is the victor.

"Since when is the general election like playing badminton?" asked Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general.

He considered Prime Minister Najib Razak illogical for likening the last general election to a three-set badminton game between him and Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in his president address at the Umno general assembly in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

However, Najib said on this, Anwar went on to claim that he won based on the total number of points he had accumulated, Najib said, adding that a badminton match is judged in terms of who wins two out of three sets.

He was apparently referring to the Pakatan Rakyat claim that the opposition won 51 percent of the popular votes in GE13, while the BN  which merely took 47 percent of the votes formed the federal government because of gerrymandering and malapportionment of constituencies.

"The PM is illogical for saying this," Lim said at a press conference today.

"Let's say Najib wins in the first set with 21-12 points, Anwar wins the second with 21-5, and the third set is won by Najib again with 21-11," Lim explained.

"If based on scores, Anwar got a lot of points, but that is different. Because in badminton, all the scores are the same - 21," he said.

"But it's different in the general election. In certain areas you need a score of 50 to win."

Lim further explained that this was because in GE13, constituencies like Kapar, had an overwhelming number of voters (about 160,000) compared with Putrajaya, which only has about 17,000 voters.

"For places like Kapar, you can win only if you get a score of 160, unlike Putrajaya, where you can win with only 17 points.

Lim said for the recent May 5 general election, different parliament constituencies had different scores.

"They do not respect the one man, one vote principle. Kapar has 160,000 voters and Putrajaya 17, 000 voters. Is this fair?" Lim asked.

"If it is like that (GE akin to a badminton match), world champions like Lee Chong Wei or Lin Dan also cannot win," he added.