KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan has told Umno delegates to not rest on their laurels, and step up efforts to return Malay votes to the party.
Mohamad — also known as Tok Mat — said Umno’s recent win in the Nenggiri by-election does not yet signal a shift in the Malay voters’ support.
“The main lesson from the by-election is that Malay support is not static. It is dynamic. It can shift in line with the dynamics of the candidate, strategy, and issues presented.
“The fact is, the Malays have yet to clearly show that they are beginning, in large numbers, to return to supporting Umno,” he was quoted saying by Sinar Harian while launching the general assemblies of the party’s Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings yesterday.
He added that Umno cannot live in denial and complacency despite being part of the government, since it is merely a component member of the federal coalition.
On Saturday, Barisan Nasional’s Mohd Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani secured a morale-boosting win for the coalition, convincingly winning the by-election for the Nenggiri state seat in the PAS bastion of Kelantan.
According to the Election Commission, Mohd Azmawi won the seat with a majority of 3,352 votes over his rival, Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Mohd Rizwadi Ismail from PAS, and flipping the seat with a margin of victory over four times what PN managed in the state election last year.
