KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Just a day after the Kemaman parliamentary by-election was won by Perikatan Nasional (PN), former Umno warlord Tan Sri Annuar Musa claims a dynamic swing in support among two voter groups for the federal Opposition coalition.
Now deputy elections director of PAS, Annuar said the Terengganu by-election result showed an increase in support among ethnic Chinese and young voters even as he marked that the Orang Asli continue to remain steadfast behind the federal ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
“Chinese support for PAS has risen to 31 per cent, with BN still commanding 69 per cent of their vote.
“Concurrently, the Malay vote strongly favours PAS at 72 per cent, compared to BN’s 28 per cent. The youth demographic is firmly aligned with PAS, showing an increase to 77 per cent from last year’s 66 per cent at the 15th general election, while support for BN among the youth has dipped from 34 per cent to 23 per cent,” he said in a Facebook post today.
He did not attribute the source of his post-election voter analysis.
“All of this proves that despite the attacks against the Opposition and a strong government campaign the public are showing more support for PAS,” he said.
PN fielded Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar in the by-election who won the Kemaman parliamentary seat with a majority of over 37,000 votes, based on official results from the Election Commission.
His role challenger representing the BN was a retired military man, General Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor who won 27,778 votes.
PN leaders have been jubilant since last night when the by-election results were announced, touting the victory as the first step of their return to federal power.
In a separate Facebook post today, Annuar gave a laundry list of the Anwar administration’s “achievements” as it marks the first year since it came to power.
In a backhanded congratulatory message, he said the list includes approving last month’s Coldplay concert — which PAS disapproved of due to the British band’s support for the LGBTQ community — licences for the sale of alcoholic drinks, easing visa restrictions for Chinese and Indian travellers, to potential subsidy eliminations and tax increases.
In the same tone, he raised questions about the Anwar government’s trajectory. ”Electricity tariffs have risen, support for Hamas has been muted, takbir shouts no longer allowed, opposition MPs face allocation refusals, Sabah’s allocation is limited, royalties to Opposition states delayed, LGBT normalisation is noted, prima facie cases dropped, and the LCS case remains silent while ‘bosku’ is neglected,” he said.
“What other Madani initiatives are to come...” he wondered.
