BN disagrees with survey claiming Warisan will win Kimanis

KIMANIS POLLS | Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan disagreed with an Ilham Centre's survey which found that Warisan candidate Karim Bujang is likely to win the Kimanis by-election.

Speaking to the media after a ceramah at Pimping, the BN deputy chairperson (above) said he is confident that BN's Mohamad Alamin can win the race.

"We are confident that BN will win (in Kimanis). It is their right to say Warisan will win," he said.

"We know who is (behind) the Ilham Centre. It is a pro-Pakatan Harapan NGO," said Mohamad, who is the Rantau assemblyperson.

However, despite Mohamad calling them pro-Pakatan, Ilham Centre did predict a comfortable win for the BN in the Tanjung Piai by-election.

Mohamad said: "In the democratic process, we will work hard until the last minute so that voters can open their mind to pick the best candidate to represent them in Parliament.

"While we did not conduct a survey, but (from the feedback in) our house-to-house visits, we are sure that we have explained the current political situation and people can see the difference between BN and the Pakatan Harapan government."

Under BN, he added, Malaysia, with its multiracial and multireligious background had become the role model of other countries.

'Normal to have minor misunderstandings'

"We have minor misunderstandings, but that is normal," he said, adding the only exception was the 1969 (racial riots) incident, but the country was learning from the tragedy.

"We have ensured that racial issues and the sensitivities of the religious matters (have been taken care) and we need to respect one another," he said.

According to the survey released yesterday by Ilham Centre, Warisan is likely to win as the controversy over the Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS) was not making an impact on the voters, as wanted by BN.

Survey respondents were split almost three ways on the implementation of PSS. About 38 percent of respondents supported it, 30 percent were uncertain and 32 percent said they did not support and strongly opposed the implementation of the PSS.

Ilham Centre said the Malays, Muslim bumiputeras and voters residing in rural localities would prefer to vote for a ruling party so that welfare, progress and development can be brought to their area.

The by-election was called after the Election Court voided the 14th general election result for the Kimanis parliamentary seat on grounds that the Election Commission (EC) failed to comply with election procedures.

Umno's Anifah Aman had won in Kimanis with a razor-thin 156-vote majority in that election.

Umno is represented by Mohamad Alamin, who is contesting under BN's banner, while Karim Bujang is representing Warisan.

Addressing a crowd of 400 at Pimping, the biggest polling district in Kimanis with 3,057 voters, Mohamad told the voters to make the Kimanis by-election a referendum against Harapan due to its poor performance and unfulfilled manifesto.

He said Warisan cannot distance itself from the Harapan-led federal government as Warisan was given three ministers and two deputy minister posts.

Aside from performing badly, he said Harapan has all sorts of people in the government and the cabinet ministers can easily displace a clown or comedian.

"What are they doing? Fighting day and night for premiership. I think the old man should dissolve Parliament," Mohamad said.

"They fight among themselves and do things that brings me shame to say. They have (personalities) that rape, sodomise, being sodomised ... everything.

"(They have individuals) who support the communist and took drugs," he said.

"See what they have done? The ministers were speaking nonsense, that's why the clown or comedian cannot find a job because the Harapan ministers are funnier than clowns or comedians."

Case in point, according to Mohamad, was Maszlee Malek's resignation as education minister, Agriculture and Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, who wanted to develop a flying car, as well as Agro-based Industry Minister Salahuddin Ayub, who urged fishermen to plant pineapples at coastal areas during the rainy season.

"Seriously. You want them (the fishermen) to plant pineapples in the sand?" 

Harapan failed in its administration and it has lost direction, he said, adding that voters should assess the performance of BN and the Harapan government before casting their ballots.

Mohamad believed the amount given under 1Malaysia People's Aids (BR1M) programme can increase to RM3,000 or RM4,000 in future as compared with RM2,000 this year if BN was in power.

Mohamad's speech was aimed to capture close to 30 percent of outside voters out of the total 29,644 Kimanis voters.

About 2,000 of them are residing in Kota Kinabalu, while 800 of them are working in Labuan.

In the past general election, Anifah Aman won the support of the elder voters while younger voters voted for a change.

Voters aged above 60 make up to 19 percent of the total Kimanis voters. Voters below 40 make up to 39 percent of total voters.

Recent by-elections showed that BN could reclaim the support of young voters.

Other than Pimping, there were seven other ceramah kelompok held at the polling districts BN aimed to retain or regain. - Mkini