PETALING JAYA, June 3 — DAP’s Tony Pua conceded today Pakatan Harapan is the underdog in the upcoming Sungai Besar by-election but said the pact was not focused on winning or losing but to claim at least half of the votes in the semi-rural Selangor parliamentary seat.

The Selangor DAP chief said that it was important to show the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) federal coalition that it could not win over popular support even in the suburbs.

“I think it is an important benchmark that BN does not have 50 per cent of votes as that means they no longer have popular support even in semi-rural areas,” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP told a news conference here.

“Whether we win or not is immaterial as it is only one parliamentary seat. But it is important to show BN no longer has 50 per cent of votes. Still, it is an uphill task and it is not easy,” he added.

Sungai Besar has 42,836 registered voters, 67.18 per cent of whom are Malay, 30.18 per cent Chinese and 1.91 per cent Indian.

In Election 2013, the late Datuk Noriah Kasnon won the seat for BN with a slim majority of just 399 votes.

The candidate chosen to replace her for the coming June 18 contest is Budiman Mohd Zohdi, who is also the assemblyman for Sungai Panjang, one of two state seats that fall within the federal constituency.

Budiman will face another state assemblyman, PAS’s Meru representative Dr Rani Osman, as well as Pakatan Harapan’s candidate from Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah), Azhar Ab Shukur.

The three-way battle is expected to work in BN’s favour, largely due to the expected split in the opposition vote.

Nominations for the seat have been set for this Sunday while polling will be on June 18.