KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Lim Kit Siang today painted a bleak picture for the opposition in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections, saying even straight fights in both seats may not result in Barisan Nasional’s (BN) defeat.
The DAP veteran cited the May 7 Sarawak polls as an example, saying the voting trend there indicated that Pakatan Harapan parties would not have fared much better if they had not clashed in some seats.
He pointed out that in Election 2013, the opposition had made sure to avoid such clashes among its members but even then, BN had trounced PAS in both the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar seats.
“As the ‘one to one’ route had been maximised in the 2013 general election, Umno/BN can only be defeated in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar parliamentary by-elections if there is a ‘game changer’ giving the two by-elections unprecedented national significance and importance.
“Is such a ‘game changer’ available?” Lim asked in a statement here.
The “game changer”, according to the Gelang Patah MP, may lie in how the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and RM2.6 billion political donation controversies impact the lives of the constituents in both the Selangor and Perak seats.
He said Sarawak voters felt far removed from both issues and were more taken with the “Adenan effect”, resulting in Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem’s stunning victory for BN in the polls.
As such, Lim said the outcome of the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar polls is dependent on whether voters in the two seats find the two controversies issues of national importance.
“This answer will decide whether there is a ‘game changer’ for the two parliamentary by-elections which have the makings of defeating Umno/BN — in which case, whether the by-election is a ‘one to one’ or a multi-cornered contest becomes a secondary issue,” he said.
The opposition is expected to enter both polls this June 18 in a fractured state, with clashes between Pakatan Harapan parties and former ally PAS.
Negotiations are currently said to be underway in Selangor to prevent three-way clashes in Sungai Besar and possibly in Kuala Kangsar but this will likely fall through as PAS has consistently expressed its refusal to back down in either of the contests.
