What are a few of the reasons for the BN, or should we say Umno, winning seven of the last eight by-elections?
Here’s something I wrote for Asia Times:
Umno bounces back in Malaysia
By Anil Netto
PENANG – The political tide that earlier rolled against Malaysia’s ruling United Malays Nasional Organisation (Umno)-led coalition appears to have turned again in its favor, raising the prospects for possible early polls. Continue reading »
Gerakan central committee member Dr Hsu Dar Ren has quit the party on the third anniversary of the 8 March 2008 watershed general election.
The reason? “Not so much because of the party itself, which has a good ideology and many good members and many good friends, but more because of the dominance of Umno over everything else within the coalition,” he said.
“I am sick of race-based politics and Gerakan is actually getting further and further away from realising its ideology of building a fair and equitable society.” Continue reading »
So, my source in Pas was accurate in his predictions for both these polls.
On the eve of polling (5 March, 10.28pm – see Coveritlive below) he had predicted a BN win by 3,500 votes in Merlimau (actual 3,643) and a BN majority of 2,500 in Kerdau (actual 2,724).
Pas is fighting a “losing battle” in Merlimau, a source within the party told me.
The source, who was campaigning for the party in Merlimau over the last couple of days, said the campaign has been “dominated by the BN on all fronts”. Continue reading »
It’s going to be straight fights – BN vs Pas – for the Kerdau and Merlimau by-elections, the 15th and 16th by-elections since the 2008 general election.
The score as it stands now is 8-6 in the Pakatan’s favour. The BN has a good chance of levelling the score, if, as many expect, they win both these both by-elections. In fact, a source within Pas, who has been accurate in his predictions so far, told me the party has little chance of winning these by-elections.
These by-elections will be the prelude for the Sarawak state election, expected to be held in early April 2011. The BN will be watching all these polls carefully, and if all goes well for them, maybe we can expect a general election a few months later.