Tough for DAP to repeat clean sweep in Selangor

AFTER announcing DAP’s candidates for four parliamentary and 16 state seats in Selangor on Sunday, party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the party looks forward to making a clean sweep of these seats.

However, an analysis in Sin Chew Daily yesterday said it will be an uphill task for DAP to score a 100% victory in the state, as it did in the 13th general election (GE13), particularly with PAS joining the fray to make it a multicornered fight for most of the seats up for grabs.

DAP, which contested four parliamentary and 15 state seats in GE13, was allocated an additional seat – Dusun Tua – this time around.

The latest redelineation exercise saw a significant change in voter demographics in many of DAP’s constituencies, among them the Kuala Kubu Baru state seat.

In GE13, DAP’s Lee Kee Hiong won the seat with a majority of 1,702 votes in a fivecornered fight involving MCA’s Ooi Hui Wen and three independents.

In the coming polls, Lee will be challenged by MCA’s Datuk Wong Koon Mun and Kuala Kubu Baru PAS information chief Naharudin Abd Rashid.

Wong, the seat’s former assemblyman, has vowed to recapture the constituency for his party.

Following the redelineation of electoral boundaries, three Malay-majority polling stations from Batang Kali are now under Kuala Kubu Baru, making it a Malay-majority seat for the first time.

Lee has to bank on PKR and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia to pull Malay votes to retain the seat as Chinese support alone will not see her through.

Another doubtful seat for DAP is Sungai Pelek, which it won with a 1,972-vote majority in GE13.

It is understood that the party’s grassroots in Sungai Pelek are not happy that the party is fielding Ronnie Liu in the constituency.

If the party is unable to placate the grassroots, there is a good chance that MCA will recapture this seat.