The Malaysian Insight

PKR’S president-elect Anwar Ibrahim will be “ashamed” if he won the Port Dickson by-election with only a slim majority as it would put a dent in his future mandate as prime minister.

The former deputy prime minister pleaded to the voters to go out and vote for him instead of people just saying he would surely win the polls.

“‘Anwar will win’, I do not want it to be this way. We go down and we make sure everyone votes. I will be ashamed if I win but win narrowly,” Anwar told the crowd in an ceramah in Port Dickson today.

He is going up against six other candidates including former Negri Sembilan menteri besar Isa Samad, PAS’ Nazari Mokhtar and independents that include Anwar’s former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Former Port Dickson lawmaker Danyal Balagopal Abdullah evicted the seat for Anwar to contest on his quest to become Malaysia’s 8th prime minister.

Naval veteran Danyal won in the 14th general elections just five months ago with a 17,710 majority.

Anwar said as Danyal won with a big majority for Pakatan Harapan (PH) and he would like to retain it with a big majority which will fortify his position in Parliament as the prime minister-in-waiting.

“Yes, it is important to win in the by-election but the majority also needs to be big, as it was under Danyal.

“Secondly, I have been chosen by friends in PH to be Dr Mahathir’s successor as prime minister. I want my mandate to be strong.

“Then, I can speak bravely. I can defend the fate of the Port Dickson people firmly and bravely,” he said referring to current Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Admitting that he was new in the constituency, Anwar urged locals to tell their friends and family to vote for him.

“I admit that I am new here. I do not know many personally. A lot of villages also I have not visited.

“As someone new here, I ask for your help (to campaign),” he said.

The former Permatang Pauh MP then went on to appoint the crowd of over 100 as “campaign agents” and his election machinery.

“I ask all those who are here to go down and campaign… I appoint everyone here to be my campaigning agents in Port Dickson,” Anwar said.

The Port Dickson parliamentary seat has 75,212 registered voters, comprising Malays (43%), Chinese (33%) and Indians (22%). – October 1, 2018.