BN poised for double victory

By FMT Staff
FMT ALERT KUALA LUMPUR: Reports from the ground and votes tallied from polling streams indicate that Barisan Nasional is poised to win both by-elections, giving Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's administration a boost and sending the Anwar Ibrahim-led opposition back to the drawing board.

Linda Tsen, the BN candidate for the Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election, is said to have secured a commandable lead of nearly 3,000 votes over SAPP president Dr Yong Teck Lee and PKR's Ansari Abdullah.

Unofficial figures hand victory to Tsen with a 3,300-vote majority, just falling short of the 3,708-majority gained by her late husband in 2008.


Tsen is the widow of the former incumbent Edmund Chong, who died in a traffic accident on Oct 9, paving the way for this by-election.

It also appears that SAPP's Yong has failed to capture on his popularity among the Batu Sapi voters. The unofficial numbers show him falling behind PKR's Ansari who was widely predicted to be the whipping boy.

Observers note that while Tsen had managed to solicit support from both the Malay/Bumiputera and Chinese voters, former chief minister Yong however had lost out to Ansari on the Malay/Bumiputera votes.

PKR meanwhile will look at the results as work-in-progress as the party has high hopes of making inroads in both Sabah and Sarawak for the next general election.

Chinese back to support BN

In the peninsula, BN candidate Abdul Aziz Yusoff is also ahead of his PAS rival Dr Zulkefli Mohamad in the Galas state by-election in Kelantan, with pundits predicting a victory in the region of 1,000 votes.

According to votes tallied from polling streams, Umno's Abdul Aziz managed to pip Zulkefli by 1,069 votes, reversing the 646 majority gained by PAS in 2008.

The results from the various streams also indicate that the Chinese voters have backed BN after ditching the national coalition in 2008.

The contest was called following the death of PAS assemblyman Che Hashim Che Sulaima.
Pundits also predicted that the double victories could prompt Najib to call for a snap general election.