KUANTAN: Pakatan Harapan (PH) will not underestimate the strength of Barisan Nasional (BN) in Cameron Highlands in view of the upcoming parliamentary by-election, PH secretariat chief Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said.
He said this was because the Cameron Highlands by-election scheduled for Jan 26 was the first to be held in a constituency won by BN in the 14th General Election (GE14).
“This is also the first by-election to be held in a BN-led state. The last four by-elections were in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan which were under PH-led government. So, this time around, we anticipate a very interesting by-election,” he said after flagging-off 2,050 participants of Ultron Kuantan New Year Run and Ride 2019 co-organised by Adham Bike Centre here yesterday.
Saifuddin, who is also Foreign Minister, said apart from giving attention to Orang Asli voters, PH would also give focus on the fence-sitters as they seemed to be playing a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the by-election.
“Our concern for the Cameron Highlands by-election is the voter turnout as it was quite low at previous by-elections, but the election machinery of all PH component parties have agreed to work full time to ensure victory to PH candidate,” he said.
The by-election is being called after the Election Court on Oct 30 declared the election of Datuk C. Sivarraajh of BN in GE14 null and void because of corrupt practices to influence voters. Sivarraajh did not appeal the court decision.
The Election Commission set nomination for the by-election on Jan 12, early voting on Jan 22 and polling on Jan 26.
Last Friday, PH chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that Pahang DAP vice-chairman M Manogaran as PH candidate for the by-election. – Bernama
