Congrats BN, 'tahniah' Umno.
We retained Rompin parliamentary seat in a by-election that saw our majority votes reduced by almost half (as compared to 2013) and lesser turnouts.
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Our candidate Hasan Arifin (pic) may celebrate, and so are the rest of party leaders and workers. I don't see any comfort zone in the victory. In fact, I am worried. Aren't you PM Najib, Hisham (Rompin by-election director), sec-gen Ku Nan and others?
But Umno leaders, campaigners and workers were over-stretched by information from JASA, Jabatan Penerangan, Kemas and other when the Special Branch had earlier warned of 'a reduced majority'.
You can't count votes based on the crowd attending BN 'ceramah', neither can you harp an estimation based on turnouts at official functions by a few ministers.
Already its majority votes cut by half, what will happen in the next general elections, two or three years from now? We may have won this time but there is no reason to be upbeat about it. We may celebrate now and get complacent.
Some say we won on the 8,000 Orang Asli votes. Most probably. So, what about the Malays, Chinese and Indians?
The lesser turnout - 74 per cent against 80 per cent in 2013 - is not the indicator that BN will still be popular in GE14. That absentees are those who didn't go home to vote (it was a working day in KL and other parts yesterday) and voters who simply didn't want to cast their vote over confusion and 'fed up' with events hovering Umno.
However, congrats again...but there is no cause for a celebration! It's time to weigh possibilities and consequences, and work harder.
And let's see its impact on Permatang Pauh tomorrow.
We retained Rompin parliamentary seat in a by-election that saw our majority votes reduced by almost half (as compared to 2013) and lesser turnouts.
ROMPIN, May 5 (Bernama) -- The Barisan Nasional (BN) has retained the Rompin parliamentary seat after its candidate Datuk Hasan Arifin won in the by-election here today with a majority of 8,895 votes.I wrote in my previous posting that the 15,000 majority set for Rompin was simply an 'over confident' figure. With some major issues boiling up BN's pot - GST, 1MDB, Dr Mahathir-Najib saga among others - BN could lose some votes.
Hasan, 62, obtained 23,796 votes or 61 per cent of the votes cast while his challenger, PAS's Nazri Ahmad, 40, secured 14,901 votes or 39 per cent.
In the 13th General Election held in May 2013, Tan Sri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis had retained the seat for the BN after defeating Dewan Muslimat PAS chief Nuridah Mohd Salleh with a majority of 15,114 votes.
Jamaluddin obtained 30,040 votes or 66.53 per cent whereas Nuridah polled 14,926 votes or 33.06 per cent.
The results were announced by the Returning Officer Datuk Fadzilla Salleh at the vote tallying centre at Dewan Jubli Perak Sultan Ahmad Shah here tonight.
Fadzilla said voter turnout was 74 per cent and there were 591 spoilt votes.
But Umno leaders, campaigners and workers were over-stretched by information from JASA, Jabatan Penerangan, Kemas and other when the Special Branch had earlier warned of 'a reduced majority'.
You can't count votes based on the crowd attending BN 'ceramah', neither can you harp an estimation based on turnouts at official functions by a few ministers.
Already its majority votes cut by half, what will happen in the next general elections, two or three years from now? We may have won this time but there is no reason to be upbeat about it. We may celebrate now and get complacent.
Some say we won on the 8,000 Orang Asli votes. Most probably. So, what about the Malays, Chinese and Indians?
The lesser turnout - 74 per cent against 80 per cent in 2013 - is not the indicator that BN will still be popular in GE14. That absentees are those who didn't go home to vote (it was a working day in KL and other parts yesterday) and voters who simply didn't want to cast their vote over confusion and 'fed up' with events hovering Umno.
However, congrats again...but there is no cause for a celebration! It's time to weigh possibilities and consequences, and work harder.
And let's see its impact on Permatang Pauh tomorrow.