KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Gerakan president Datuk Dominic Lau has reportedly said the party needs to dispel non-Muslims’ perception of its ally PAS to convince ethnic Chinese voters to back Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate for the Kemaman by-election.
Free Malaysia Today quoted him claiming rival Barisan Nasional would seek to employ “dirty tactics” to instigate the Chinese to vote against PN by pointing to prohibitions such as alcohol consumption and wearing shorts if the Islamist PAS wins — something which he said does not exist in Terengganu.
“We will ensure that non-Muslim voters will back the PN candidate,” he was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today.
Lau said Gerakan would also highlight the failures of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s government in looking out for the welfare of non-Muslims.
He said Anwar became the prime minister due to the support of 95 per cent of Chinese voters for Pakatan Harapan.
Lau accused Anwar of failing to resolve issues related to vernacular schools and overcoming the shortage of Chinese language teachers, and blamed the prime minister for the increased cost of living.
The Kemaman by-election will see a straight fight between Samsuri and BN candidate General (Rtd) Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor.
The Election Commission (EC) has set early voting on November 28 and polling day on December 2, after the by-election was called following the decision by the Terengganu Elections Court on September 26, to nullify PAS candidate, Che Alias Hamid’s victory in the 15th general election.
