The Bagan Pinang by-election will be remembered for the comeback of the tainted Isa Samad, the Pakatan’s first defeat on the peninsula since GE2008, and the large number of army postal votes.
BN and Umno flags flutter at the Port Dickson Golf and Country Club, next door to the Army Engineering Institute, during the by-election campaign – Photos by Jong
The Pakatan needs to carry out a serious postmortem to find out why and how it was thrashed in Bagan Pinang.
Posters of the Kg Buah Pala demolition were found around Ladang Siliau in Bagan Pinang on nomination day – Photo by Tiger
In some ways, the BN victory was not unexpected. Perhaps the scale of the defeat surprised many. But a few keen political analysts noticed something amiss ahead of polling day and predicted that Isa would win comfortably as noted in my post here.
So far, many have pointed to some obvious reasons for the BN’s landslide win:
Pull factors:
Congrats to the BN! It finally broke the Pakatan’s winning streak on the peninsula. There will be much rejoicing in the mainstream media about how the tide has turned.
But at what cost?
In its desperation to win in its own stronghold, Umno put up a popular local candidate whom its own party disciplinary board had found guilty of “money politics” (let’s call a spade a spade and refer to it as corruption). A candidate who perhaps best reflects the ethos of the party – at a time when the MCA itself is in utter disarray following the PKFZ debacle.
What message does this send out about “1Malaysia” and “1World”? We might as well disband the MACC…
Live coverage of developments from the Bagan Pinang by-election.
The BN was dealt a demoralising blow on the eve of the Bagan Pinang by-election after contradictory motions passed during the MCA’s extraordinary general meeting today threw the party into disarray and left it bereft of top leadership.
Photos by Jong
Before today’s EGM, a couple of political scientists/analysts I know who visited Bagan Pinang last night got the impression that the BN had the edge. They observed that the Pakatan’s campaign was missing some of the earlier by-election “spirit” and felt that Isa would win comfortably.