In Teluk Intan, DAP believes non-resident voters key to victory

TELUK INTAN, May 24 ― Amid fears of a low voter-turnout, the DAP hopes to entice home the bulk of largely pro-opposition constituents living outside Teluk Intan this May 31, believing their votes could decide the outcome of the by-election.

Going by the standards of most by-elections, voter turnout in the historic Perak township could dip to as low as 65 per cent, which Teluk Intan DAP campaign director Tony Pua said would be “very risky” for the party.

“One of the key concerns we have is that outstation voters, who tend to be more pro-DAP because of their national outlook, won’t come back,” Pua told The Malay Mail Online yesterday.

“Appealing to outstation voters is an integral part of our campaign as it may tip the scale of winning or losing,” added the DAP publicity chief.

Last year, 80.4 per cent of Teluk Intan’s over 60,000 voters cast their ballots, giving the DAP a stunning over 7,000-vote majority. Then, there were an estimated 3,000 registered voters living outside the constituency in places like KL, Penang, Johor and even as far-flung as Singapore.

Although the DAP is tipped yet again to retain the seat, the party fears that it’s enemy’s use of racial politics may rob it of its much-needed Chinese support.

DAP has chosen young Malay lawyer Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud to represent the party in the Chinese-majority seat.

Ivanpal Singh Grewal, assistant secretary of the Gerakan election task force in Teluk Intan, estimated a voter turnout of between 65 and 70 per cent this May 31, noting that that low voter turnouts are a general trend across by-elections.

The Kajang by-election in Selangor last March, for example, saw a voter turnout of just 72 per cent, well under the 88 per cent in the 13th general election.

“Generally, voter turnout in Teluk Intan is between 65 and 70 per cent. Last year’s 80 per cent was unexpected,” Ivanpal told The Malay Mail Online.

“It’s better for BN if they don’t come back,” he added, referring to the seat’s registered voters living outstation.

In Election 2013, DAP’s Seah Leong Peng defeated BN’s Datuk Mah Siew Keong in the fight for the Teluk Intan federal seat in Perak with a majority of 7,313 votes.

Seah’s unexpected demise from cancer on May 1 triggered the by-election, which will be contested by Mah again in a straight fight against Dyana Sofya.

Despite DAP winning Teluk Intan by over 7,000 votes last year, party adviser Lim Kit Siang estimated that the DAP’s chances of retaining the seat were as low as 40 per cent, due to BN using Dyana Sofya’s ethnicity to pull non-Malay support away from the opposition party.

The Chinese comprise the largest group of voters in Teluk Intan at 42 per cent of the electorate. The Malays make up 38 per cent, and the Indians 19 per cent of the 60,349-strong electorate.