PERMATANG PAUH, April 30 — They meet in small groups at PAS by-election operation centres where the map out their campaign trail before moving out in  cars to residential areas and secluded villages.

This is the work the tireless PAS Muslimah have undertaken since day one of the Permatang Pauh by-election campaign on Saturday.

Unlike other campaign workers, their target is different; they approach housewives at home and remind them to go out to vote on May 7, a working day when turnout is expected to be low and to PKR’s detriment.

In Permatang Pauh, there are 71,890 registered voters and out of which 70 per cent are Malay voters, 23 per cent ethnic Chinese, six per cent ethnic Indians and one per cent other ethnicities.

Of these figures, more than half — about 51 per cent — are female voters meaning there are about 36,600 female voters in the largely rural constituency.

The PAS Muslimah’s campaign is done quietly, behind the scenes, where small discreet groups would spread out to all the villages and housing estates to woo voters on a daily basis instead of holding ceramahs.

One of the campaign workers, Jamalih Omar, has been visiting various housing estates and villages in Permatang Ara here in the last few days.

“This is what we do for every election; we will go to every housing estate, every house and we talk to them, we tell them about current issues, we remind them to come out to vote,” she said.

This may just be a by-election that ally PKR is contesting, but the female campaign workers from the Islamist party are treating with gravity and tirelessly plodding through muddy dirt lanes leading to small, squat wooden houses day in day out.

Jamalih said campaign workers from other areas, namely Sungai Petani, Padang Terap, Jerlun and Kubang Pasu, are coming over to assist in the campaigning in Permatang Ara in batches now.

“We work in shifts and in each shift we have several small groups to spread out to different villages,” she said.

“I’m from Sungai Petani and I drove back and forth these four days to help with the campaign, to tell people about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and why they have to vote for PKR,” the PAS member added.

Jamalih said that, on weekdays, most people are out at work except for the elderly and housewives caring for their young children at home.

“We talk to whoever is at home and those at home are mostly the mothers and grandmothers,” she said.

She, along with the other campaign workers, start their campaign at about 9am each morning.

Once at their destination, they immediately spread out to all the houses, knocking on doors, exchanging pleasantries with the residents and explaining the meaning of GST.

“Don’t be fooled by Barisan Nasional, they are taxing poor people like us through GST when we are not even supposed to be paying taxes,” Jamalih explained to one of the housewives as she handed out a flyer on the negative impact of GST.

She went on to extol the virtues of PKR president and candidate Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, emphasizing that as a woman, mother and a grandmother, she is the best person to understand the needs of women and housewives like her.

Jamalih then clinched her brief campaign talk by reminding the voter to bring another 10 voters with her to vote for PKR and vote against GST this May 7, by which time the voter was nodding agreeably to her suggestion.

When contacted, Penang PAS deputy commissioner and the Permatang Pauh by-election director Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa said PAS is going all out in its campaign to ensure a win for PKR.

He said at any one time, there will be between 500 to 600 PAS campaign workers from Kedah, Perlis, Perak, Selangor and even Kelantan down on the ground campaigning.

“In the last few days before polling day next week, we will have more campaigners, up to 1,000 at any one time,” he added.

There have been reports of dissent within Pakatan Rakyat between Permatang Pauh PAS and PKR, and more recently, between Penang PAS Youth and PKR Youth.

The Permatang Pauh PAS finally relented after a discussion with the PKR leadership and a few days later, Penang PAS Youth also relented to throw their support behind PKR.

Dr Wan Azizah is defending PKR’s seat against BN’s Suhaimi Sabudin, PRM’s Azman Shah Othman and independent Salleh Isahak.