TANAH RATA, Jan 21 — With only five days to go before polling day on Jan 26, campaigning for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election as at today can only be best described as lukewarm.
Thus far, majority of activities carried out by contesting candidates only created moderate excitement in the air compared to four earlier by-elections held in Selangor and Negri Sembilan.
According to Md Shukri Shuib, senior lecturer of political and international affairs of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), the lack of lively atmosphere during the campaign period could be due to fatigue experienced by the election machinery after going through four by-elections — state seat by-elections in Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia, and Balakong in Selangor and parliament seat by-election in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan.
He also said that the seemingly lukewarm atmosphere was also good as it showed that an election did not need to be held in a fierce and tensed atmosphere.
“Let the people choose calmly, peacefully and not being deflected by the campaigning activities. Let the voters choose based on the fact and the popularity of the contesting candidates,” he told Bernama.
The Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election on January 26 will see a four-cornered fight between Pakatan Harapan (PH)’s candidate M. Manogaran, Ramli Mohd Nor from Barisan Nasional (BN) and two independents, namely, former lecturer at the Aminuddin Baki Institute, Sallehudin Ab Talib and farmer Wong Seng Yee.
Md Shukri also said there was no element of aggressiveness at the Cameron Highlands by-election campaign too as it was only to add value to the winner and not to determine the fall of a state or federal government.
“In this by-election, if BN wins PH still administers the federal government and if PH wins, the BN will continue ruling Pahang state,” he explained.
He said the BN’s victory in Cameron Highlands would not be a surprise as the seat was among the coalition’s stronghold since 2004, but if the decision was in favour of PH it would prove that the public trusted the PH government.
Another political observer, Prof Sivamurugan Pandian expected that the PH’s top leaders would visit the constituency this week before the campaign period ended at midnight on January 25.
Sivamurugan, senior lecturer with the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, also said the flurry of activity in the final week of campaign period could be due to the parties contested felt that the introduction of candidates by the machinery was adequate.
“This approach will ensure that the candidates to use the direct approach to interact with the voters,” he said.
He said the small-scale campaign talk was also adopted by both PH and BN because the approach would work better with certain target groups.
The Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election is being held after the Election Court on November 30, last year, declared BN candidate Datuk C. Sivarraajh’s victory in the 14th general election (GE14) null and void due to corrupt practices.
It has two state constituencies, namely Tanah Rata and Jelai and a total of 32,009 voters, including 247 early voters who will cast their ballots tomorrow, 12 absentee voters and 385 disabled voters. — Bernama
