KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 ― DAP candidate for the Paloh state seat, Sheikh Omar Ali, is confident his campaign in Johor would work in his favour in the May 9 polls.

The former PAS youth activist said he hopes to sway people into supporting the Opposition pact, including some 2,500 voters in Felda Kahang Barat who sided with PKR in the 2013 elections.

The Felda settlement was originally located within the Kahang state seat ― an area under the parliament constituency of Sembrong currently held by Umno senior vice president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

After the redelineation exercise on March 28, Felda Kahang Barat was shifted to the Paloh state seat, altering the demographics of voters to 45 per cent Malay, 35 per cent Chinese and 15 per cent Indian.

Sheikh Omar’s campaign includes handing out flyers door-to-door and organising talks alongside former Umno deputy president turned Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

“Although the programme with Muhyiddin was not a huge scale event, it was attended by some 40 to 70 people who are the first generation of Felda settlers here.

“Before this, we can’t even make our way into the area. Back in the Reform era (1999), the roads leading up there were blocked by a group of women.

“Now, even if we put up the banners or party flags, nobody would take them down. To me, that signifies the people are more open and positive,” he told ProjekMMO last week.

In the previous election, DAP’s R. Shanker lost in Paloh to Barisan Nasional’s Teoh Yap Kun by just 103 votes.

Sheikh Omar, however, admitted that the incumbent Sembrong MP Hishamuddin has a strong influence on the people there.

Since the Sembrong seat’s creation in 2004, Hishammuddin has retained the seat for the past three terms. In GE13, he won the seat with a 10,631-vote majority, beating PKR’s Onn Abu Bakar.

Sheikh Omar admitted that using the PKR logo in GE14 has helped to remove the stigma that the Malay voters generally attach to DAP.

“By using one logo, it is easier for me to access the support of Malay voters, especially in Felda.

“That is why I am optimistic that Felda area in DUN Paloh will not be a fixed deposit to BN anymore,” he said.

Sheikh Omar said he is no stranger to Paloh as he has heard the various complaints made by the locals at the Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong’s office.

As a part of his campaign, Sheikh Omar also invited popular Felda activist Mazlan Aliman for a talk back in February, which he said ‘went smoothly with no obstruction’.

In 2013, before the redelineation exercise, 20 per cent of voters in Felda Kahang Barat voted for PKR’s Hamdan Basiran, he said.

Hamdan, however, only managed to gain 6,154 votes and lost to BN’s R. Vidyananthan, who won with a majority of 7,801 votes.

In only three weeks, Sheikh Omar has visited all 400 families in the area who represent a particular group of voters and intends to repeat the visits prior to election day on May 9.

“I need to campaign harder to gain that extra 10 to 15 per cent votes so I can win the seat comfortably,” he said.