PONTIAN: Tanjung Piai turned red last night when thousands of Pakatan Harapan (PH) supporters turned up for the ruling coalition’s parliamentary by-election ceramah perdana event in Kukup, in what appeared to be its final push towards galvanising support in it’s bid to retain the seat.
Ceramah perdana was PH’s biggest event in the two-week campaign period, with a host of top leaders including, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) chairman, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, its Youth Chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) president, Mohd Sabu, DAP secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng, and PKR secretary-general, Saifuddin Nasution, present at the huge multi-racial event. However, PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was not present.
The vast majority of the attendees were clad in red, the colour synonymous to Bersatu. PH’s machinery was also seen distributing its red shirt some 100m away from the ceramah stage prior to the programme.
The ceramah was marred by flyers which urged voters to ”vote Muslims first”, similar to the “buy Muslims first” campaign that was strongly backed by Umno and PAS before.
Guan Eng, however, swiftly addressed the issue, denying that the flyer was from PH, while Syed Saddiq went further, claiming that the flyer was an act of sabotage towards the ruling coalition.
“I checked with the organisers and no one is aware. We suspect it’s a sabotage.
“Our stance is, vote for the candidate who brings development for Tg Piai, who will fight corruption.
“Race & religion should not matter,” tweeted Syed Saddiq.
The flyer in question, however, was seen on top of the lined-up seats for the attendance together with the other PH campaign materials.
Nevertheless, the situation does not appear to be in favour of the ruling coalition as support from the Chinese which staunchly backed them in the past, appearing to be on the wane, ahead of the Nov 16 polls.
The Tanjung Piai by-election was called for, after to the sudden passing of its incumbent MP Datuk Dr Mohd Farid Md Rafiq on Sept 21.
PH candidate Karmaine Saidini will square off against five other candidates in a six-way fight, including BN’s, Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng, Gerakan’s, Wendy Subramaniam, Berjasa’s, Datuk Dr Badrulhisham Abdul Aziz, and two independent candidates Dr Ang Chuan Lock, and Faridah Aryani.
