TANAH RATA, Jan 23 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has tonight admitted that Pakatan Harapan (PH) is in for a tough fight in the Cameron Highlands by-election.
He said at the coalition’s campaign finale, ‘Ceramah Perdana’, that while it would be difficult, it was still not impossible for PH to win in the traditional Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold.
“We know it’s not easy to win the Cameron Highlands seat, but if we work hard in the next two days and get the support from the locals, we can definitely win the seat,” the finance minister said.
Lim said the coalition has to win because for the past six decades, nothing was done by the previous government for the people of Cameron Highlands.
“The locals, especially Orang Asli, have been suffering. Malaysia has changed and Cameron Highlands also has to change for the betterment of its future,” he said.
A large crowd turned up to hear the coalition’s bigwigs speak. They included PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang.
The Cameron Highlands parliamentary constituency has a total of 32,009 registered voters, with 19,524 voters from the Tanah Rata state constituency while the remaining 12,485 are from Jelai state constituency.
Malays make up the majority of voters, at about 33.5 per cent, followed by ethnic Chinese at 29.48 per cent, Orang Asli at 21.56 per cent, ethnic Indians at 14.91 per cent and others at 0.55 per cent.
The multi-cornered contest involves Ramli Mohd Noor from BN, M. Manogaran from PH and independent candidates Wong Seng Yee and Sallehudin Ab Talib.
Polling day is on January 26.
