Keadilan's by-election wizards are said to be tapping into mathematics with the hope of discovering a winning formula for tomorrow's contest in Indera Kayangan, Perlis.

The party is said to be number crunching to determine how many votes it must secure in order to defeat the Barisan Nasional candidate.

"We were told that Keadilan is hoping to get at least 3,800 votes to win this election — roughly 80 percent of Chinese votes, and about 25 percent of Malay votes," said a source close to Umno.

The source added Keadilan is confident of getting about 2,500 Chinese votes and at least 1,300 Malay votes to make up the targeted 3,800 votes.

If this materialises, Keadilan thinks the party could win the by-election with a majority below 500 votes, he said.

"That is why Keadilan has maximised its Chinese election campaigners to campaign aggressively in Chinese areas.

"As till now, Keadilan has made little inroads into the Malay community who are mainly pro-government," added the source.

Discouraging voters

Meanwhile, the source claimed that the opposition party is also trying to discourage Malays voters from casting their ballots tomorrow.

Describing this as part of their strategy, the source said Keadilan campaigners are telling Malay voters that BN will definitely win the by-election and their only aim is to reduce the ruling coalition's majority.

"They base this on the assumption that only 75 to 80 percent or about 6,500 electorates will vote tomorrow.

"Keadilan calculated that the elderly electorate, who make up about 10 percent of the total, may not turn up tomorrow.

According to the source, Keadilan also predicts that 15 to 20 percent of the Malay electorate would not vote tomorrow.

Indera Kayangan has an electorate of 7,976 voters - 47 percent Malays, 46 percent Chinese and 5 percent Indians.

In the 1999 general election, MCA garnered 3,825 votes, defeating Keadilan by 1,974 votes.

Tomorrow's by election which will see a straight fight between BN's Oui Ah Lan and Keadilan's Khoo Yang Chong, was called following the death of MCA incumbent Khor Liang Tee last month.