All parties confident of winning

SANDAKAN: When the votes from 12 polling centres for the semi-urban Batu Sapi parliamentary seat are tallied tonight, Barisan Nasional is anticipating victory by a majority of at least 2,000.

PKR and the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) are also expecting wins.

While PKR is looking at a 400-vote majority, SAPP simply says it will win.
The prediction for Batu Sapi is no longer one of overwhelming confidence but a close race between Barisan’s Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin and SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee.

According to political observers, PKR’s Ansari Abdullah seems stuck in the third spot for the seat won by the late Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah in 2008 by a 3,708-vote majority.

In the last lap of the campaign, candidates were focusing on the 9,378 Chinese voters who were fast emerging as kingmakers.

A political analyst said 70% to 80% of these votes would be Yong’s, depen­ding on what the turnout was.

But Tsen, of Parti Bersatu Sabah, has eaten into a good chunk of Yong’s vote bank in the last 72 hours.

Tsen, who remained comfortable with the 14,187 Muslim bumiputra voters, had pocketed much of the 1,615 postal votes cast on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“I feel good,” said the 54-year-old who hoped to take up her husband’s mantle. His death in a road accident on Oct 9 triggered the by-election.

Yong, the 52-year-old former chief minister, said: “We are winning.”

Ansari disputed his third spot tag, saying Pakatan was drawing votes through the PKR, DAP and PAS national leaders: “You will be surprised, I won’t be third.”

An academic observing the campaign trial said Muslim bumiputras of the lower income group would vote Barisan as they found security in its politics of development.

“However, the Chinese, a mix of low and middle income, are prone to opposition thinking. The sentiment is no different to what is happening in the peninsula,” said another.

He said the 746 (3%) non-Muslim bumiputra and Indian voters would only be crucial if there was a three-way split among the Chinese.

Both expected the turnout to be between 65% and 70% compared to the 63% in 2008.
They opined that a lower voter turnout would be advantageous for Barisan as it would mean that opposition voters were staying away.

In Sandakan, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin told Batu Sapi voters that the Barisan had done a lot for the nation.

“We acknowledge there are still infrastructures lacking in certain areas but we, the Barisan Govern­ment, will accomplish every project we set out to do,” said Muhyiddin after Hajat prayers at the Al-Falah Mosque in Kampung Karamunting here yesterday.

(source : theStar Online)