Umno: Historically low turnout a sign of protest against Harapan

SG KANDIS POLLS | The historically low turnout at the Sungai Kandis by-election today is a sign of protest against the Pakatan Harapan government, claimed Umno leaders.

Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan said the poor turnout showed that something was wrong with the government.

"The protest is surely not against BN, because BN is not the government. If there was a protest it would be against the government," Mohamad told reporters when met in Sungai Kandis today.

The Election Commission today said turnout was at 49.8 percent.

Meanwhile, Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob said another reason for the low turnout could be that PKR supporters felt there would not be a change of government even if they lost the by-election.

Meanwhile, BN's defeated candidate for Sungai Kandis, Lokman Adam, claimed that there was an element of fear that discouraged people from voting.

He said many were spooked by the authorities’ move to freeze accounts such as those belonging to the grandson of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, as well as the alleged forced resignations of various chiefs of government-linked companies (GLCs).

"So there was a phobia among the public, they were afraid that if they got involved in this election, the position of their children, or their aid from the Social Welfare Department will be affected.

"This is bad for democracy," he said. He also claimed that youths and Chinese voters were disappointed with the government.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari attributed the low turnout to a lack of urgency in the by-election.

"There was no feeling of urgency among voters to topple the government and so on," he said.

Amirudin also claimed that many voters who worked in factories complained that they could not vote as they were working today.

Amanah president Mohamad Sabu, however, believed that the low turnout did not point to a shift in support levels.

"I believe the voting trends are almost the same," he said, adding that a more detailed study was required to determine if those who did not vote included PAS supporters.

Split in PAS support?

A quick analysis by Malaysiakini found that PKR's vote share increased by 5.8 percent in this by-election, from 55.6 percent in GE14 to 61.4 percent today.

However, BN's vote share saw a comparatively larger increase of 11.5 percent, from 26.7 percent in GE14 to 38.2 percent in the by-election.

This was likely due to a split in PAS supporters. PAS' vote share stood at 17.5 percent in the last general election.

The data suggests that PAS’ decision to explicitly order its supporters to avoid voting for PKR may have benefitted BN.

However, it also suggests that PAS was unable to order all its supporters to back the BN candidate. -Mkini