Merlimau PAS pins down winning formula

PAS national election director Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman today expressed confidence in winning the Merlimau by-election by a slim majority.

He believes they are capable of winning by a narrow margin of 61 votes, if they can pull in 45 percent of Malay, 75 percent of Chinese and 40 percent of Indian voters.

He was speaking in PAS press conference at the PAS Merlimau operation centre.

Despite never winning the seat before, Abdul Halim claims their house to house survey shows that PAS has already garnered 41 percent of Malay votes, just four percent short of what they need for a win.

In 2008, they had only managed to get 36 percent.

As such, he said, Pakatan is now aiming for youth voters, particularly first time voters, who make up 1,300 and 400 votes respectively.

Chinese voters, who have mostly backed Pakatan in the previous by-elections are also on PAS’ radar. Their target is a big leap from 2008 when they received less than 50 percent votes from the Chinese.
 
Merlimau state seat comprise a total 10,679 voters, with 64.percent (6,935 voters) Malay, 20.8 percent (2,218) Chinese and 14.1 percent Indians (1,510).

Where are the heavyweights?

However, he refused to comment on the absence of PAS heavyweights, including party president Abdul Hadi Awang and spiritual leaders Nik Aziz Nik Mat, at the campaign.

Both have been spotted in Kerdau, although Abdul Hadi earlier had been present to announce the candidacy in Merlimau.

Asked if this indicates that they have given up on Merlimau, Abdul Halim replied vaguely that he will need to consult with the leadership on the matter.

However, PAS confirms that Abdul Hadi will be coming to Merlimau to campaign for one day.

Meanwhile, PAS information chief Idris Ahmad said that PAS' Yuhaizad Abdullah "needs to win" because he will be the only person who will be able to advise the government on Malay and Islamic issues on behalf of the opposition.

These include issues involving zakat money and land gazetted under the Malacca Islamic Council (MAIM).

PAS had earlier lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on what they believe to be wrongdoing involving zakat money and the building of the MAIM complex.

"All these issues involve religion and the Malay community, and it must be raised by an assemblyperson who is Muslim," he said.

He reasons that at present the five Pakatan reps in the Malacca state assembly are from DAP.

The DAP reps have been unable to raise the Malays-Muslim issues as the BN assemblypersons always shoot them down claiming they have no legitimacy to raise those questions, being non-Muslim and non-Malay.