Has BN conceded defeat in Kajang?

If a component party chief's speech last night is anything to go by, the ruling coalition is only looking to narrow the majority margin in the by-election

PETALING JAYA: A Barisan Nasional component party chief has conceded defeat in the Kajang state seat by-election slated for March 23.

At a closed door meeting with branch leaders in Kajang late yesterday evening, the leader said the result of the by-election was a forgone conclusion.

“We cannot win in this by-election. We must now try to reduce the margin of the opposition victory,” he told about 26 branch leaders who attended the meeting.

“Actually when the party leader said that BN will lose, many branch chairmen shook their heads in disbelief. How can a general say we are going to lose and then lead his army to battle. This is suicide.

“Instead of boosting our confidence, this leader did the opposite which is to demotivate us” said a branch leader who attended the meeting.

The party has about 45 branches in Kajang but only 50% of its branch leaders attended the meeting with the leader.

BN has yet to name a candidate for the seat. It is expected pick one from the MCA within a week. The seat is traditionally contested by the MCA under the BN’s seat sharing system.

The opposition has named PKR de facto chief and parliament Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim as its candidate.

Former PKR vice-president Zaid Ibrahim has also expressed his intention to contest the seat as an independent candidate.

The seat fell vacant following the resignation of incumbent assemblymen Lee Chin Cheh of PKR on Jan 27. The Election Commission has set March 11 for nomination and March 23 for polling.

The Kajang state seat comprises 38,965 registered voters. It has 48% Malay voters, Chinese 41%, Indian 10% and others 1%.

At the last general election in May, 2013, there was a voter turnout of 87.9% with 541 spoilt votes.

No show by BN leaders

PKR’s Lee garnered 19,571 votes followed by Lee Ban Seng (BN-MCA) with 12,747 votes and Mohamad Ismail (Berjasa) 1,014 votes.

The three independent candidates who contested were Mohd Iwan Jefrey Abdul Majib (249 votes), Ong Yan Foo (85 votes) and Mohd Khalid Kassim (83 votes).

Lee won with a comfortable 6, 824 vote majority. Except for the MCA candidate, all the others lost their deposits.

The by-election, however, will not have a bearing on who runs the state as Pakatan Rakyat has 44 seats in the 56-seat Selangor state assembly. The remainder 12 are held by the BN.

On another front, it is also learnt that BN component party leaders have yet to hit the ground, an indication that they are not taking this by-election seriously.

Except for MCA leaders and a sprinkling of Umno heavyweights, component party leaders are taking this polls lightly based on the number of visits to the constituency well-known for its satay.

Anwar is in Kajang almost every evening and the BN is nowhere in sight, and now voters are beginning to wonder if they would nominate a candidate for the by-election.

While visible presence is important, component party leaders admitting defeat to their own party grassroots is definitely not going to boost confidence. In fact this would demotivate them further.