KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — MCA’s Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong today claimed his support among ethnic Chinese voters rose to over 23 per cent in the Ayer Hitam federal seat, bucking the reported trend of the community abandoning Barisan Nasional.

Wee noted that some media outlets variously estimated support for BN among the ethnic Chinese community to be around five per cent or between three and eight per cent, but said support for him outstripped this during the 14th general election (GE14).

"However, I obtained about 24.6 per cent — 40 per cent votes in four Chinese majority new village areas,” the MCA deputy president said in a statement posted on his Facebook account today.

Wee’s Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat in Johor, which he won for the fourth time with a 303-vote majority in GE14 over DAP’s Liew Chin Tong, covers the two state seats of Yong Peng and Semarang.

The Chinese-majority new villages he cited as examples include three in Yong Peng — Kampung Baru Lam Lee where he won 245 votes (39.96 per cent), Kampung Kangkar Baru where he won 637 votes (29.44 per cent) and Kampung Baru Yong Peng (29.07 per cent) — and Semarang’s sole Chinese-majority village Kampung Baru Ayer Hitam (24.81 per cent).

"All in all, I secured about 29.2 per cent of the votes in the four Chinese new villages.

"To recap, I was able to secure about 23.55 per cent votes in the Chinese and urban areas of Ayer Hitam, better than the single digit support towards BN in some other constituencies. I thank all of them for recognising my service to bring about development in the constituency for the past 15 years,” said Wee.

Wee was listing figures to back his assertion that he won Ayer Hitam "properly and fairly given the political tsunami”, noting that he was able to successfully defend the seat due to Chinese voters who stuck by him when some Malay voters opted not to back him.

Wee said he was able to once again rely on the support of "loyal voters” from Malay-majority and palm oil estate areas in his constituency, noting that this was despite data showing that the support towards BN from polling stations in these areas did not meet the coalition’s target.

"Next, in light of the shift of Malay centrist voters to PAS and PH, my Chinese support base did not ‘crash’ as seen in other constituencies.

"In fact, when compared to Chinese votes obtained by BN candidates in the state seats; I see a slight increase for my Chinese votes.

Wee noted that 9,475 of his total 17,076 votes in Ayer Hitam came from the predominantly-Malay Semarang, while his BN colleague Datuk Samsolbari Jamali who contested in Semarang won a total of 10,751 votes.

With the difference in vote numbers won by the two BN men at 1,276 voters, Wee said that this clearly meant that Semarang voters from Malay-majority polling stations had opted to split their votes when casting ballot papers for the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat and the Semarang state seat.

Wee also noted that his Ayer Hitam rival from PAS, Mardi Marwan, won a total of 4,975 votes, which he said was 1,309 votes more than the combined total of the PAS candidates’ haul in the two state seats.

"This phenomenon of splitting votes between state seat and parliamentary seat suggests that MCA’s firm stance on Act 355 and other issues may have caused dissatisfaction among certain quarters in the Malay community.

"This may have led to them voting for BN candidate from Umno in the state seat but not the BN candidate from MCA in the parliamentary seat,” he said, having noted that Mardi was said to have campaigned on Act 355.

PAS has been trying to push for amendments to Act 355 or the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 to empower the Shariah courts to dole out heftier penalties of a maximum 30-year jail term, a maximum RM100,000 fine and a maximum 100 lashes. MCA has voiced objections over such proposals.

In contrasting his electoral results with his BN colleagues in the state seats, Wee highlighted that his loss of support among Malay voters was offset by his greater haul of Chinese votes.

"In light of this voting trend, I was able to win the parliamentary seat with a 303-vote majority due to the continuous support of my Chinese voter base.

"In the Yong Peng state seat comprising a higher Chinese voter percentage, I secured 383 votes more than the BN candidate for the state seat,” he said, attributing this to what he said was the "undeniable results of my long service in the constituency” and his BN colleague’s first-time contest in Yong Peng.

Wee urged those questioning his electoral victory to "respect the choice of the Ayer Hitam voters”, saying: "Stop your illogical phantom vote allegations. The election is over and it’s time to move on.”