PONTIAN, Nov 18 — Malaysian United Democratic Alliance’s (Muda) parliamentary candidate Lim Wei Jiet has described the Tanjung Piai constituency as an important seat for the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition to secure in forming the next federal government for the 15th general election (GE15).
He said there has been a lot of pressure in the past few weeks for PH and Muda to win in Tanjung Piai as it is considered a “hyper-marginal” seat that will determine the coalition’s success in GE15.
“Tanjung Piai is considered as a swing seat as PH won it for the first time in the 2018 national election with a slim majority of 524 votes.
“However, PH lost it to Barisan Nasional (BN) with a large margin of 15,086 votes in the following by-election in 2019.
“This time round, we don’t know what will happen or which direction it will swing as the outcome will largely be determined on the constituency’s outstation voters,” said Lim when met recently at a PH ceramah in Pekan Nenas here.
Lim, PH’s GE15 Tanjung Piai parliamentary candidate, acknowledged that it was an uphill task for him to convince the voters as he was still new.
The 31-year-old Muda co-founder and former Tenang state election candidate, said that it was not easy going against someone such as BN’s Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng, who is a seasoned three-term Tanjung Piai MP.
“Despite that, I am determined to do my best for both PH and Muda to convince the voters,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lim who is also a practising lawyer, said Tanjung Piai’s demographics were also unique as the voters consist of 60 per cent Malay, 39 per cent Chinese and about one per cent are Indian.
He said most of the constituency’s voters are based outside of Tanjung Piai, in Johor Baru, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.
“For me, Muda will focus on our social media campaign to attract outside voters and at the same time urge them to return and cast their votes,” said Lim, adding that first-time voters are among the target groups after the Undi18 and automatic voter registrations initiative boosted an additional 17,000 new voters for Tanjung Piai.
Lim, who is a Johorean, said the issues he has brought up for his campaign included job opportunities, disproportionate wages, the issue of small traders in addition to the rising cost of living.
For polling day tomorrow, Lim will face BN’s incumbent Wee and Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) candidate Col (PA) Najwah Halimah Ab Halim in a three-cornered contest for Tanjung Piai.
