JOHOR BARU: All Barisan Nasional component parties must work hard to ensure that they can win over the Chinese votes in the Pulai and Simpang Jeram by-elections, says state Barisan information chief Datuk Md Jais Sarday (pic).
“The Chinese may be the kingmakers, as Pulai is a mixed seat with 40.46% of the voters comprising Chinese constituents.“Due to the Chinese voters and a huge turnout of voters in the Johor state election, Pulai MP Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub won the seat with a huge majority of 33,000 votes,” he said in an interview.
Salahuddin, who was the elected representative for both seats, died on July 23. He was 61. He was Amanah deputy president and had served as the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister.
Md Jais, who is also the state Umno information chief, said Barisan will still need to implement its strategy carefully to win the by-elections in Pulai and Simpang Jeram, although Johor is governed by a strong Barisan-led government.
Unlike other states where they are jointly administered by both Barisan and Pakatan Harapan, he said the majority of seats in Johor are held by Barisan.
“Johor Barisan has 40 out of the 56 state seats, with Umno holding the lion’s share of them since it had its state election last year,” he added. Melaka is another state under Barisan’s leadership.
He said that it is important that Johor Umno win the seats, as Umno was born in the state.
Md Jais added that Barisan and Pakatan would also need to come up with a formula to work together in the elections for the two seats.For the Simpang Jeram state seat, Md Jais said during last year’s Johor election, the combined votes for Barisan and Pakatan came to almost 15,000 votes. He said the seat, previously known as Sungai Abong, is considered a PAS stronghold. The assemblyman in the 2008 general election was Dr Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh Salleh from PAS.
Md Jais said even if Barisan loses both Pulai and Simpang Jeram in the coming by-elections, the coalition will not lose its two-thirds majority in Johor.
“But it’s still important that both Barisan and Pakatan work hard to retain the seats. Any loss of either seat will be perceived by many as PAS making inroads into Johor,” he added.
Pulai’s parliamentary seat has 166,653 voters, comprising 44% Malays, 40.46% Chinese, 12.31% Indians and 3% others.
Simpang Jeram has a total of 40,488 voters, comprising 51.87% Malays, 44.58% Chinese, 2.5% Indian and 1% others.
Meanwhile, Amanah president Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu claimed that there would not be an increase in Malay votes for Perikatan Nasional in Pulai and Simpang Jeram. He believed that voters would give their support to unity government candidates for the two seats.
“Amanah will work closely with our allies in Pakatan and our new friends, which are Umno and Barisan Nasional, to make sure our two candidates win.
“We are confident of seeing an increase in votes for our candidates as both Pulai and Simpang Jeram are not pro-Perikatan areas but pro-Pakatan and Barisan,” he added.
He was speaking to reporters after introducing Pakatan candidates Suhaizan Kaiat for the Pulai seat and Nazri Abdul Rahman for Simpang Jeram at an event here.
Meanwhile, Pulai Umno division chief Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed also said Malays in Johor would not be swayed by Perikatan’s candidates.
“In Johor, the Malays here are moderate, and they reject extremist views on racial and religious matters,” he said.
Nur Jazlan said Pulai Umno division would be mobilising its machinery to help Suhaizan in his election campaign.
