Comfortable PH win likely: Analysts

> Low by-elections turnout expected due to ‘political fatigue’

PETALING JAYA: When the Balakong and Seri Setia state seats fell vacant in July and August respectively, both the government and opposition showed little enthusiasm in the seats – or at least not as much as they did in previous polls. And this comes as little to no surprise.

The two by-elections are ones that promise little, and the outcomes are expected to hardly have any significance to both parties and the Selangor administration.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) already has a remarkable majority in the state assembly with 51 of the 56 seats, meaning a loss for the coalition – which is unlikely – and a victory for the MCA and PAS candidates would have little ramifications.

With this in mind, many voters would not feel the urge to cast their ballots this Saturday as they did in the 14th general election (GE14) to ensure a Barisan Nasional (BN) loss.

“The by-elections came too soon, so don’t expect much changes in voting pattern. PH will win both seats, it’s as clear as daylight. The only change I see is the turnout. I believe less than 70% will vote,” political analyst Assoc Prof Dr Jeniri Amir told theSun yesterday.

“There’s no excitement, and there’s political fatigue because it’s so close to GE14,” he added.

Seemingly on the same card as Jeniri, all candidates for the two byelections had at least on one occasion during campaigning pleaded for their constituents to come out in numbers.

Fellow analyst Prof Datuk Dr Mohammad Redzuan Othman said the 21-day campaign period also proved to be too long, causing a rather slow-paced campaigning.

“I don’t see any strong justification to have it for more than 20 days. Two weeks would have been enough.”

PH heads into the by-elections just mere months after their convincing showings in the two constituencies during GE14. Although they are not expected to pull off another victory of the same margin as before, a victory is already on the cards for PH.

Eddie Ng Tien Chee and Prof Dr Shaharuddin Badaruddin won their Balakong and Seri Setia seats on May 9 with 35,538 and 19,327 majority respectively, and as far as campaigning for the by-elections go, not much change is expected come polling day.

Wong Siew Ki and Halimey Abu Bakar may not be as prominent as their predecessors, but running under the PH banner alone would prove too much for their opponents. PAKATAN HARAPAN’S Seri Setia candidate Halimey Abu Bakar has urged PAS to stop playing the “debate card” in the by-election.

Halimey said he has not received official letters of invitation from Astro Awani or any other organisations to debate PAS candidate Dr Halimah Ali.

“Why is PAS still playing the debate card? I did not receive official letters of invitation.

“It is not a matter of being afraid, but please do it in a proper manner. There’s only a few days left in the campaign, I just want to focus on the constituency. What else is there to be debated?” he said at a press conference.

Halimey also broke down in tears when asked about Halimah’s statement of calling him outdated for using the “local boy” angle to woo voters.

“Yes, I am a local boy, I am used to a harsh life, I admit I was the son of a pasar malam trader who only made RM20 a day at times to support my family, now it is my turn to give back to the people.” – by Kevin Deva