It is likely that BN will win the Balingian by-election. But we should watch closely whether Pakatan can reduce the 75 per cent of the popular vote clinched by the BN in this constituency in the 2011 state election.
The by-election today is between BN’s Yussibnosh Balo and Pakatan’s Abdul Jalil Bujang (PKR). Voter turnout at 11.00am was 53 per cent compared to the total turnout of 70 per cent in the 2011 state election.
In the 2011 state election, former-Chief Minister Taib Mahmud won the state seat with a reduced majority of 5,154 votes (2006 – 5,726 votes) in a three-cornered contest.
Back then, the area had 11,792 registered voters. It has 13,366 registered voters now, a rise of 13 per cent.
In the run-up to the buy-election by-election, a few prominent national PKR leaders were denied entry into Sarawak. PKR vice chairman See Chee How was reported (in FMT) as saying that millions of ringgit were being thrown around in Balingian since nomination day on 17 March – which he said was unprecedented and “more than the constituency has seen in decades”.
The 2011 state elections:
N051: BALINGIAN
PKR (Suriati Abdullah) (PKR) – (871) (10.5 per cent of total votes cast)
BN (Taib Mahmud) (BN-PBB) – 6,210 (2006 – 6393) (75.2 per cent of total votes cast)
Independent (Salleh Jafaruddin) – 1056
Valid votes cast – 8137
Spoilt votes – 116
Total votes cast – 8,253
Registered voters – 11792
Turnout – 70.0 per cent
Majority (5154) (2006 – 5726)
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In this world, there are two categories of people beyond cure, one is lazy people and the other one is stupid people.
In Sabah and Sarawak, they belong to the latter group. Even heaven cries buckets of tears for these people
So in Sabah & Sarawak, Malays, Chinese,Indian, Kadazan, Murut, Iban, Melanau, Dayak etc etc and others are all stupid. And all these people are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist and others and supporters of DAP, PKR, BN, Pekaka, PBS, USNO, UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, PAS and others etc etc.
No we really have one no brainer.speaking
In this world, there are two categories of people beyond cure, one is lazy people and the other one is stupid people.
In Sabah and Sarawak, they belong to the latter group. Even heaven cries buckets of tears for these people.
By the way, Anil, i have received 5 copies of Major Zaidi’s books. I will send one for your reading at Aliran Office when i am free, ya.
Irene Fernandez just passed on, good people die young while the wicked ones just cant seem to disappear???
Thanks, Kee, appreciate that.
Yes, sad loss re Irene Fernandez.
Manupulate not manupulated .sorry
Swk is underpopulated and people living sparely hence easy for bn to manupulated rural voters..
Anil, as long the EC or MACC doesn’t do anything about the dangling, there’s nothing much we can do it unfortunately.
Pakatan Rakyat gonna lose their deposit
Anil, I can tell you that PR will face a major uphill battle to win over the locals of Sarawak in the next state election. They may have won 6 parliament seats out of 31 on offer during GE13, but all of them are Chinese-majority seats. The only selected rural seats that PR has a chance of retaining is Krian (via Ali Biju – PKR) and Ba’kelalan (via Baru Bian – PKR). The rest of the rural seats are a shoo-in for Barisan Nasional, especially under their new CM. Hence, PR can no longer play the Taib card as he… Read more »
Well, if that’s the case, the BN need not resort to pledging to spend millions of ringgit during election campaigns, right?
Anil, even if BN hadn’t made those promises, they would still have obtained a super comfortable majority (in the range of 6,000 – 6,500 votes). Most people in East Malaysia just want to get on peacefully with their lives and their traditions intact, regardless of the promises that have been thrown at them.
This is Sabah and Sarawak we’re talking about. Much different scenario from Peninsula Malaysia.
So why resort to such electoral practices? I don’t understand.
That is a question that can only be answered by BN themselves. I’m just an interested observer of voting patterns and polling statistics. xP
It is plain wrong to try and influence voters by dangling expensive projects as carrots during an election campaign.
And I think its also wrong to influence voters with titbits of 100, 200 and 1000
BN will win But opposition voters will increased
Thats the projection. Its not quite clear what the breakdown of voters by ethnicity. There are many Dayaks, Ibans, who migrated to Balingian since early 1900’s. But Balingian is known for being Melanau.
Let’s see the votes movement.
60% melanau, 25% Iban & 10% chinese. Seriously anything below 4000 majority would be a disaster to PBB. Which is acheiveable. That PBB guys is a nobody anyway. Optimistically, it can go as low as 2000 to 3000 majority. By the way Alfred Jabu get as low as 1900 majority last time. Remember, Alfred is the giant slayer that “kill” Stephen Kalong Ninkang
BN 1 – PR 1