Rantau polls: PH's Streram is an outsider and completely 'out of the game', says indie candidate Malar

Malarvizhi speaking to reporters at the Rantau wet market on Saturday.

SEREMBAN: Pakatan Harapan's Dr S. Streram is no threat in the April 13 by-election as he is not only an outsider but a candidate who is completely "out of the game" in Rantau, says independent R. Malarvizhi.

She claims the anaesthetist was clueless as to what were the real needs of the voters here and would be no match for Barisan Nasional's Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and her.

"Dr Streram's Pakatan may be a big party but it has very small ideas.

"This contest is going to be a straight fight between Tok Mat and me.
"The other two (candidates) are completely irrelevant," she said when met while campaigning at the Rantau wet market on Saturday (April 6).
Apart from Dr Streram, Mohamad and Malarvizhi the other candidate contesting is another independent Mohd Nor Yassin.

Malarvizhi said the fact that Dr Streram's name appears fourth on the ballot paper was another reason why he wouldn't do well.

"People I meet on my campaign rounds tell me that they are not going to pangkah (mark) the fourth candidate because it means a bad omen.

Malarvizhi who returned to Rantau in 2016 after spending 25 years in Canada also took a swipe at Mohamad for suggesting that there were no real issues in Rantau.

"The fans and toilets at this market are not functioning well and you say there are no issues?

"I see lots of issues in Rantau and I will look into them once I am elected," she said.

The housewife, who will be using the tree as a logo said there had been both ups and downs over the past seven days of campaigning.

"I was once told not to go to a Barisan kubu (fortress) in Kuala Sawah but I still went in and was so happy to have been given a warm welcome.

"But I have been to places where the people had asked me if I had money to give them and when I said I didn't, they just shooed me away," she added.

The by-election was triggered following a Federal Court decision to uphold an earlier ruling by the Election Court to nullify the results for Rantau.

In GE14, Umno deputy president Mohamad, who was a three-term Rantau assemblyman, won the state seat unopposed after Dr Streram was denied entry to submit his nomination papers as he did not have a tag or a pass.

Election Court judge Azimah Omar allowed Dr Streram's petition for a by-election on the grounds that Mohamad's election victory was not valid.

The Rantau polls is the seventh by-election post-GE14, and the third to be held in 2019 after Cameron Highlands and Semenyih.- Star