A long fireworks display after 10 days of a gruelling campaign by Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS was a fitting finale to his significant victory in the Bukit Gantang by-election.
“This is a referendum and it gives a picture of what the people of Perak and Malaysia want,” said an ecstatic Mohd Nizar told reporters last night in Taiping town hall, where the results were announced.
Mohd Nizar, who was ousted controversially as Perak menteri besar in February, had billed the by-election as a referendum on the disputed Barisan Nasional takeover of the state government and his ouster as menteri besar.
Despite the rain and heavy traffic jams yesterday during polling, the voters answered Mohd Nizar’s call and came out in droves. The turnout of 72 percent was deemed to be high, given that the polls were conducted on a week-day.
“This shows that the people want democracy, their basic rights and the right to choose a government fairly,” said Mohd Nizar.
He obtained 21,860 votes while BN’s Ismail Saffian bagged 19,071 votes. The majority of 2,789 was a significant improvement over the 1,566 majority achieved by PAS’ Roslan Shaharom whose death in February vacated the seat.
The increase in majority was despite the Umno relentless onslaught on Mohd Nizar - painting him as a traitor to the sultan and Chinese-stooge.
From data received thus far, it can be concluded that PAS received a sizeable increase in non-Malay votes compared to the general election last year, while the Malay vote either maintained status quo or dropped marginally.
In 2008, Roslan won the seat with an estimated 45 percent of the Malay votes, but secured the majority of non-Malay votes, which makes up about 37 percent of the total voters.
The immediate implications from this by-election for PAS, which comprises a core of conservative Malay-Muslims, is that the party will have to learn to deal with expectations of non-Muslims and take these seriously.
Contrast in mood
Last night, however, serious introspection was far from the minds of the party faithful who gathered in their thousands outside the town hall to wait for results.
In a repeat of the nomination day process, riot police erected barbed-wire barriers to keep rivals at bay. However, BN supporters were nowhere to be seen.
Initially, the crowd waited patiently but when Mohd Nizar and his entourage of Pakatan Rakyat leaders arrived at about 9.15pm, the crowd burst into rapturous applause.
About 9.30pm, when it was clear that Mohd Nizar was the winner, a long fireworks display, set off in plain view of the police, lit the skies, adding to the euphoric mood.
In contrast, the atmosphere was distinctly sombre at the SSL Traders Hotel where BN elections director and Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin was monitoring the results.
As expected, Muhyiddin downplayed the notion that the results are a ‘referendum’ against BN for taking over Perak controversially, and against the leadership of newly-appointed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
“The leadership is still new, and the voters might not have absorbed this into their system. They just want to wait (and see),” he told reporters, accompanied by BN-appointed Perak menteri besar Zambry Abd Kadir.
Muhyiddin refuted claims that inviting Dr Mahathir Mohamad to join the campaign trail had lent to the defeat, as many political observers believe,
“I don’t think so. Support was shown from various voters, especially Malay voters, to Umno. There is an increase in terms of support to BN. It is a positive factor, not a negative one,” he claimed.
Muhyiddin also revealed that he would suggest to Najib to establish an ‘independent post-mortem’ to study how BN had gone wrong in the by-elections.
The result in Bukit Gantang marks BN’s third straight defeat in a parliamentary by-election since the March general election last year.
Malaysiakini
08/04/09
“This is a referendum and it gives a picture of what the people of Perak and Malaysia want,” said an ecstatic Mohd Nizar told reporters last night in Taiping town hall, where the results were announced.
Mohd Nizar, who was ousted controversially as Perak menteri besar in February, had billed the by-election as a referendum on the disputed Barisan Nasional takeover of the state government and his ouster as menteri besar.
Despite the rain and heavy traffic jams yesterday during polling, the voters answered Mohd Nizar’s call and came out in droves. The turnout of 72 percent was deemed to be high, given that the polls were conducted on a week-day.
“This shows that the people want democracy, their basic rights and the right to choose a government fairly,” said Mohd Nizar.
He obtained 21,860 votes while BN’s Ismail Saffian bagged 19,071 votes. The majority of 2,789 was a significant improvement over the 1,566 majority achieved by PAS’ Roslan Shaharom whose death in February vacated the seat.
The increase in majority was despite the Umno relentless onslaught on Mohd Nizar - painting him as a traitor to the sultan and Chinese-stooge.
From data received thus far, it can be concluded that PAS received a sizeable increase in non-Malay votes compared to the general election last year, while the Malay vote either maintained status quo or dropped marginally.
In 2008, Roslan won the seat with an estimated 45 percent of the Malay votes, but secured the majority of non-Malay votes, which makes up about 37 percent of the total voters.
The immediate implications from this by-election for PAS, which comprises a core of conservative Malay-Muslims, is that the party will have to learn to deal with expectations of non-Muslims and take these seriously.
Contrast in mood
Last night, however, serious introspection was far from the minds of the party faithful who gathered in their thousands outside the town hall to wait for results.
In a repeat of the nomination day process, riot police erected barbed-wire barriers to keep rivals at bay. However, BN supporters were nowhere to be seen.
Initially, the crowd waited patiently but when Mohd Nizar and his entourage of Pakatan Rakyat leaders arrived at about 9.15pm, the crowd burst into rapturous applause.
About 9.30pm, when it was clear that Mohd Nizar was the winner, a long fireworks display, set off in plain view of the police, lit the skies, adding to the euphoric mood.
In contrast, the atmosphere was distinctly sombre at the SSL Traders Hotel where BN elections director and Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin was monitoring the results.
As expected, Muhyiddin downplayed the notion that the results are a ‘referendum’ against BN for taking over Perak controversially, and against the leadership of newly-appointed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
“The leadership is still new, and the voters might not have absorbed this into their system. They just want to wait (and see),” he told reporters, accompanied by BN-appointed Perak menteri besar Zambry Abd Kadir.
Muhyiddin refuted claims that inviting Dr Mahathir Mohamad to join the campaign trail had lent to the defeat, as many political observers believe,
“I don’t think so. Support was shown from various voters, especially Malay voters, to Umno. There is an increase in terms of support to BN. It is a positive factor, not a negative one,” he claimed.
Muhyiddin also revealed that he would suggest to Najib to establish an ‘independent post-mortem’ to study how BN had gone wrong in the by-elections.
The result in Bukit Gantang marks BN’s third straight defeat in a parliamentary by-election since the March general election last year.
Malaysiakini
08/04/09
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