The Malaysian Insight

ANWAR Ibrahim’s victory in Port Dickson may be a forgone conclusion for many, but his party fears that complacency among voters may result in a lower voter turnout that will reduce his majority.

A lower majority, the party feels, would send a negative perception of the popularity of the incoming prime minister.

With less than a week before polling, Anwar’s camp is eyeing a majority win of at least 18,000 votes and a voter turnout of at least 60%.

They are working hard to get the out-of-town voters – which make up about 30% of voters in the constituency – to return to vote on October 13.

It is with this in mind that they have enlisted the help of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to campaign for Anwar tonight.

His presence, the party feels, will also help swing about 7,000 of the early voters from the army and police who will be voting tomorrow.

The fact that Anwar is new to Port Dickson is also not helping his cause. He himself has admitted that the people of Port Dickson were only beginning to know him, unlike those voters in his traditional seat of Permatang Pauh.

“Permatang Pauh is different, as everyone is my relative. I know all of them,” he said in a ceramah in Linggi, a state seat in Port Dickson which is still a Barisan Nasional stronghold.

For the voters in Port Dickson to know him better before polling day, Anwar, 71, is running a hectic campaign, attending up to 14 programmes in a day.

A party leader believes Anwar’s hard work is showing results.

“But the excitement linked to Anwar’s name is still missing,” he admitted when met during a campaign programme.

Anwar’s closest challenger seems to be former Negri Sembilan menteri besar Isa Samad, who had quit Umno to contest as an independent.

However, analysts believe Isa does not have the finishing gloss to win the seat despite being a local boy and a popular former menteri besar.

Universiti Malaysia Sabah lecturer Hamdan Adnan said voters would vote for Anwar as he is a candidate of the ruling Pakatan Harapan, and as the next prime minister, can bring development to Port Dickson.

“Isa also has many scandalsm with many Malay voters angry over the Felda issues,” said the local born Hamdan.

Isa is banking on the Malay votes and for the independents to break up the non-Malay votes to stand a chance of winning.

His campaigns are based on small gatherings, using Umno’s machinery, and targeting the Umno members in the constituency.

He is concentrating his efforts in Bagan Pinang dan Linggi, where Malays make up 60% and 72% of voters respectively.

This is the same crowd that PAS candidate Nazari Mokhtar is courting.

“We have cooperation with Umno people, especially with grassroots leaders who are open to help us,” he said.

The PAS man is confident of getting 25%of Malay support while predicting that Isa can get another 25 per cent. Anwar, he said, will bag the remaining 50 per cent.

Hamdan said Chinese voters here would vote for Anwar despite the three independent candidates of that race – Lau Seck Yan, Stevie Chan and Kan Chee Yuen.

” Chinese voters want economic growth, and they want a share of the prosperity from the economic growth that Anwar can bring,” he said.

Chan and Kan seem to be concentrating in the urban areas for their campaigns, while Lau is aiming to win the heart and mind of voters.

 Another independent candidate hoping to cause a dent in Anwar’s victory is Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

A former aide to Anwar, Saiful gained prominence for accusing Anwar of sodomising him, and resulting in Anwar being sentenced to jail for the second time.

Saiful says he has met about 4,000 voters, of which some 2,500 had pledged to vote for him.

 At the beginning of his campaign, Saiful said he would not be raising the sodomy issue, but he has started talking about it in his rounds.

While there are many horses in this race, Anwar looks certain to be the winner. What he needs now is a good turnout and a handsome majority. – October 8, 2018.