Voting begins in Permatang Pauh

Policemen guarding the polling centre at Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Penanti at the start of the Permatang Pauh by-election today. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, May 7, 2015.

After an exhausting 12 days of campaigning, Permatang Pauh folk began voting to elect a new MP for the hottest parliamentary seat in the country.

Pakatan Rakyat is expected to retain the seat held by its PKR ally since 1999.

This is a four-cornered fight among PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, new face from BN Suhaimi Sabudin, candidate from Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) Azman Shah Othman, and independent Salleh Isahak.

Dr Wan Azizah will be voting at SM Seri Penanti while Suhaimi will vote at SMK Guar Perahu. PKR is reportedly expecting low 68% voter turnout.

In the 1999 by-election, Dr Wan Azizah won Permatang Pauh by 9,077 votes. She then kept the seat in the 2004 and 2008 general elections, winning a majority of 590 and 13,388 respectively.

When Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who held Permatang Pauh from 1982 to 1998, made his comeback in August 2008, he won the stronghold in the by-election by 15,671 votes.

In the 2013 general election (GE13), Anwar retained the seat with 37,090 or 58.56% of the total 63,332 votes cast, by 11,721 votes.

Based on the GE13 results, Anwar received 40% Malay votes, 88% Chinese votes and 60% Indian votes to win the seat.

His biggest win was in the PAS stronghold – the Permatang Pasir state seat – where he won
13,266 (66%) of the 19,965 votes.

Apart from the excitement they generated on nomination day, Azman and Salleh have by and large disappeared and the fight is between Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and BN. The campaign momentum on both sides picked up over the last weekend after a rather slow start.

The PR campaign – without a manifesto – had largely centred around “Demi rakyat: bantah GST, tegakkan keadilan” (For the people: oppose GST, uphold justice).

Day in and day out, PR leaders have been talking about the adverse impact the goods and services tax (GST), warning voters that a vote for BN was a vote for GST.

To make a point, PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali threw a lobster party while Dr Wan Azizah went shopping at a local minimart to show how much a typical young family would spend paying the GST.

The alleged injustice suffered by PKR de facto leader Anwar, the former Permatang Pauh MP, who is now serving a five-year jail sentence for sodomy, had also been used to pitch for votes.

Dr Wan Azizah and PR leaders would tell the ceramah crowd how Anwar remained in high spirits and although he was behind bars, he still thought of Permatang Pauh folk.

They repeated the message that Anwar was in jail because he fought for the people over issues like the GST and they must send Putrajaya a strong message via the ballot box.

The economy, plunging ringgit, debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), alleged violation of people's rights and the use of laws and government institutions to silent dissent were among the other top issues at ceramah both big and small.

Dr Wan Azizah, the woman with her trademark fan, needed no introduction as she was Permatang Pauh MP from 1999 to mid-2008 until she relinquished the seat to make way for her husband Anwar's return to politics. A well-known figure and familiar face in Malaysian politics for the past 17 years, her walkabouts often saw locals stopping her to snap photos.

It would seem that she is the favourite to win the seat again, which would be her fourth victory. But PKR's campaign this time was markeThe crowd at PKR’s final ceramah in Permatang Pauh yesterday. PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is contesting the seat for the fourth time. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, May 7, 2015.d by disunity among the PR parties, namely coming from the pro-PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang faction.

The issue was eventually settled with those in the faction making U-turns to obey the PAS central leadership's directive to support the PR campaign, but by then Dr Wan Azizah was facing attacks by BN and some disgruntle PKR members for contesting a Penang parliamentary seat when she was already the Kajang assemblyman in Selangor.

Apart from being questioned about her service track record, the Anwar family politics also took a bashing with BN asking if PKR had no better person to field than a 62-year-old grandmother who had wanted to retire in 2008 to care for her grandchildren.

BN sold its candidate – the newcomer Suhaimi who had been largely unknown outside Permatang Pauh – as the younger and local contender who would be better able to work full-time in the parliamentary constituency to help the people deal with local issues, rather than just talk about national issues in the Dewan Rakyat.

In Suhaimi's by-election manifesto, he focused on the economy, education, health, safety, community development and rural welfare social programmes.

Under the manifesto, BN has pledged to increase the number of 1Malaysia clinics in Permatang Pauh, set up a Mini Rural Transformation Centre in Permatang Pasir, provide microcredit facilities for small traders, particularly the youth, and to establish community policing in residential areas.

Lacking charisma, Suhaimi had depended heavily on his party's election machinery and the support from BN heavyweights from Putrajaya like Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and other ministers like the popular Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, who made BN campaigning events flashier.

Apart from making promises of development for Permatang Pauh, BN component parties MCA and Gerakan had also used the hudud issue to sway voters, namely the Chinese.

The hudud issue is a double-edged sword for MCA and Gerakan to attack PR's DAP and PKR, which had successfully swept most of the Chinese votes in seats they contest.

Chinese voters make up some 20% of Permatang Pauh's 71,669 voters. A majority of them had been supportive of PR, with many voting for Anwar and Permatang Pasir assemblyman Datuk Mohd Salleh Man, the sole PAS rep who managed to win a state seat in Penang.

Malays make up 70% and Indian voters make up 6% while the rest are other races.

- TMI