MELAKA: Social media may help candidates reach voters quickly, but Kesidang incumbent Allex Seah Shoo Chin says there is no substitute for meeting them face-to-face.
The Pakatan Harapan candidate has been going door-to-door, making unscheduled stops at community events and campaigning late into the night as he tries to reach voters in Melaka’s largest state constituency by electorate.
“Social media alone is not sufficient to woo voters and I need to meet them personally,” he said.
Seah said the ground campaign also gave him the opportunity to hear directly from residents about local concerns, including flooding.
He said he had reached about one in five voters since nominations closed on Oct 31 and hoped to meet as many of the remaining voters as possible by Nov 12, two days before polling.
“It has been very exhausting as I have to stay late at night and even skip meals just to meet the voters,” he said.
Seah said he sometimes made unscheduled stops at local events to greet voters and hear what they had to say.
He added that feedback gathered during the campaign would be incorporated into a revised manifesto for Kesidang.
First elected in 2018, Seah is seeking a third term in a three-cornered contest against Perikatan Nasional’s Albert Kok and Parti Bersama Malaysia’s Dr Bryan Kek.
Asked whether his rivals posed a challenge, Seah said they had a democratic right to contest and that his focus remained on listening to voters.
He retained Kesidang in the 2021 state election with 14,769 votes and a majority of 10,237.
Kesidang has 54,910 registered voters, the highest among Melaka’s 28 state constituencies.
The Election Commission has set Nov 10 for early voting and Nov 14 for polling.
