Classic case of election fatigue
Many voters just did not bother to come out in Sungai Kandis
PETALING JAYA: Election fatigue was obvious in the outcome of the Sungai Kandis byelection, which saw a low voter turnout.
Even before the first votes were cast, PKR was expected to retain the seat. Most voters did not expect an upset, and for sure, many also did not bother to go out and vote.
Barisan Nasional wanted to send a message – that Pakatan Harapan had lost its appeal, and in the process, wanted to test out its new campaign strategy – using race and religion.
But the fact that only 49.4% of the constituency’s 50,800 registered voters turned up to vote must be seriously questioned. Sungai Kandis, which comes under the Kota Raja parliamentary seat, has voters comprising 72% Malays, 12% Chinese and 16% Indians.
PKR candidate Zawawi Ahmad Mughni received 15,427 votes against Barisan’s Datuk Lokman Noor Adam’s 9,585 votes while 60yearold independent candidate K. Murthi managed 97 votes.
The state seat fell vacant after its assemblyman, Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei of PKR, died on July 2.
Opinion research firm Merdeka Centre director Ibrahim Suffian said people were just too tired to come out and vote.
“I think it is just general voter fatigue, and people just didn’t take as much interest because it came so soon after the May general election,” he said.
Universiti Malaya political analyst Dr Muhammad Asri Mohd Ali believes that people did not come out to vote because they reckoned Pakatan already had a solid presence in Selangor.
“Many must have felt that Pakatan would win even without their support or that losing one seat to Barisan won’t seriously impact Pakatan,” he said.
However, a Pakatan elected representative said he believes grassroots members in the constituency were fed up over several issues, including gaffes made by federal ministers.
“One of the issues that have turned people off is the Education Ministry’s stance on changing school shoes from white to black.
“Lower income families that generally recycle school shoes and uniforms among their children are now having to fork out money to buy new shoes,” said the source.
He said Pakatan volunteers were also halfhearted and did not go out of their way to ferry voters to the polling centre like they did in the previous elections.
Zawawi’s campaigning of seeking and identifying warts in the constituency, such as clogged drains and uncollected garbage, had also turned people off, said the source.
“He is part of the government, but he went around campaigning like he was representing the Opposition,” said the source.
But why couldn’t the presence of Pakatan heavyweights, such as Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, Lim Kit Siang, Mohammad Sabu and Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir and Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari lure voters to give the ruling coalition’s candidate more votes?
The answer, said Selangor PAS elections director Roslan Shahir, is that these leaders no longer impressed the masses like they did in the past.
“Tun Dr Mahathir is the Pakatan icon now. And if he had come to campaign, I’m sure there would have been a bigger turnout,” he said.
(Dr Mahathir did not visit the constituency throughout the campaign period.)
As for Barisan, it is time for the former ruling coalition to rethink its positioning and formulate a new image to better suit the young voters of the New Malaysia.
From the byelection results, it is clear that only diehard Umno members and supporters had voted for Lokman.
Umno must find out why Malay voters continued to reject the party in spite of Lokman’s pledge to pro tect Islam and Malay rights.
The socalled pact with PAS also appears to have fallen flat, with the outcome indicating the Islamist party’s members had opted to stay home and not cast their votes for Barisan despite being urged to do so by some PAS leaders.
“It is not easy after 61 years of enmity, but I still think the Sungai Kandis experience was a good start for future cooperation between PAS and Umno,” said PAS’ Roslan.
The stark reality is that, in spite of being heavily charged with sentiments of primordial loyalty, Umno failed to gain the trust of most of Sungai Kandis’ 72% Malay electorate.
And primordial loyalty as an election campaign tool almost always garnered support in the past.
Perhaps race and religion no longer resonated with urban and suburban communities, who were more concerned about other issues.
Although it will be a very difficult and daunting task, Barisan must also find out if former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s presence at their campaigns could have been a factor why they could not defeat Pakatan.
“People rejected Umno because of Najib. He should know his time is up and move aside and not get involved in political campaigning,” said Dr Muhammad Asri.