SUNGAI BESAR, May 31 — A flatlands town with vast padi fields and oil palm plantations, Sungai Besar is heating up as a political battleground for the upcoming by-election on June 18.
A normal sub-urban township without noisy traffic and crawling jams, the parliamentary constituency is flanked by the Sabak Bernam constituency to the north and the Tanjung Karang parliamentary constituency in the south.
The main town is Sungai Besar itself, which is cut in half by a big drain that was probably a river in the old days, flowing to the river mouth feeding into the Straits of Malacca.
On one half of the town stands a row of wooden double-storey shop houses while the other half features similar new concrete buildings.
Some 100,000-odd constituents are spread around the villages outside the town, with the majority being Malays while the Chinese are concentrated in the town, operating businesses.
The town borders Sabak Bernam where the hospital, although just a kilometre from Sungai Besar town, is under the Sabak Bernam district.
Further down to the south some 15km away is the town of Sekinchan, a modern township with concrete buildings, newly set up hotels and shop houses.
Sekinchan can also be reached from Tanjung Karang, which is after Kuala Selangor Visitors would be welcomed by vast open padi fields, some several kilometers long, on the main road before reaching the town.
Chinese voters are known to be the major settlers here and although it comes under the Sungai Besar parliamentary constituency, its state seat is Sekinchan, which is held by DAP.
The Sungai Besar parliamentary constituency comprises two state seats — Sekinchan and Sungai Panjang, the latter being held by Barisan Nasional (BN).
Sungai Panjang is in the town and the various kampungs of Sungai Besar are where the majority of the Malay population live.
Minor economic activities run by kampung people are eateries and homestays, which can be found nearly in most villagers along the road from Sungai Besar town to Sekinchan.
While Sungai Besar houses the administrative centre and an abundance of small government clinics, Sekinchan on the other hand, is undergoing major developments, with boutique hotels, newly built high rise condominiums,shop lots and property development.
Against such a backdrop, BN is fighting hard to retain the seat while old rival PAS is confident of taking over, disregarding the dispute it is facing with its old partners DAP and PKR in the opposition pact of Pakatan Harapan.
In the 2013 general election, the late BN candidate Datuk Noriah Kasnon defeated PAS's Mohamed Salleh M Hussin with a 399-vote majority.
The seat fell vacant following Norah's death in a helicopter crash last month during the Sarawak state elections.
Noriah had in the 2008 general election defeated PAS candidate Osman Sabran in with a majority of 5,009 votes and in the 2004 general election, she defeated PAS's Sallehen Mukhyi with a majority of 7,349.
The voter breakdown in the last general election was about 38,000, with 66 per cent Malays, 31 per cent Chinese and two per cent Indians.
The Election Commission has fixed nomination for the by-election on June 5 and polling on June 18.
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