BN Stronger, but No Longer a Titan
J-on
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Sunday, April 25, 2010
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By Nigel Aw
Jubilant supporters of Barisan Nasional (BN) certainly have many reasons to celebrate over its Hulu Selangor victory, most importantly among them would be in dealing a serious blow to the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
PR had taken a big risk in putting up one of its biggest name to contest in the by-election, namely Datuk Zaid Ibrahim. However, with such a high profile candidate, the lost had undoubtedly caused significant harm to the coalition's morale.
BN on the other hand, will be better poised to enter the next by-election in Sibu due on May 16 albeit the unique voting trends of Sarawak that has largely ignored the developments in West Malaysia.
While BN's triumph would suggest that it has regained some footing from its rebuttal in the last general election where it lost the seat to PR by a mere 198 votes, its performance this time round still suggests that it has only recovered marginally.
Barisan Nasional’s P.Kamalanathan has won the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat by-election by a 1,725 majority.Hulu Selangor is a traditional BN stronghold which saw BN clinching the seat with a staggering 13,662-vote majority in 2004. Even during the Reformasi upheaval which saw some setbacks for the ruling coalition, it still managed to secure the seat with a majority of 8,595 votes in 1999.
With Sunday's results, BN won the Hulu Selangor seat with a 1,725-vote majority, a number that can barely earn the constituency the title of a BN stronghold anymore.
Results from the many polling stations show that BN has recovered some of its support among Indian voters and had the staunch support of Malay voters that reside in Felda villages.
An example would be Kampung Sungai Tengi Selatan, a Felda area which saw BN bag almost three quarters of the votes there.
However, aside from Felda areas, BN was unable to return other semi-rural Malay areas to their former status of BN strongholds as the votes here were equally divided.
This was manifested in Bukit Beruntung where the votes were equally split despite much development that was done by BN especially under the tenure of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad.
At BN's final rally there last night which saw some 5,000 people throng the event, Mahathir reminded the locals of BN's contribution, recalling how he had handed over flats to local residents with a giant key replica more than 10 years ago.
The present Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had also promised that if BN won, the residential area would get a 1Malaysia clinic within a week. Half of the electorate there remained unconvinced.
Furthermore, despite Najib's more liberal New Economic Model (NEM), BN has barely made any progress in reversing the Chinese voting trends in March 2008, with the majority of votes in Kuala Kubu Bharu favouring PR, an area with a sizeable Chinese electorate.
At a glance, BN has certainly improved its position post-March 2008, however Sunday's result shows that for the northern region of Selangor, there is no such thing as a safe seat (with the exception of an election based on individual rather than party, for example, Bagan Pinang by-election in Negeri Sembilan last year).
The result promises a vibrant contest in future elections in the region and is evidence of a maturing democratic process notwithstanding the underhanded smear campaign on both sides.
