Tuesday, March 18, 2014

KAJANG CAMPAIGN TRAIL GETS MORE VIGOROUS, WAN AZIZAH CHANGES THEME

The campaign for the Kajang state seat by-election gets more intense as candidates and campaigners of both sides of the political divide cover every inch of the constituency to reach out to the 39,278 voters.

While Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Paduka Chew Mei Fun goes meeting voters in organised events accompanied by federal ministers and deputy ministers, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate Datin Seri Wan Azizah Ismail and husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim instead meet voters at pasar tani and supermarkets as well as events organised by the party campaigners that included the DAP.

Chew has been meeting voters through events that are officially organised together with Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin while several others including Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Dr Mahathir are on their own in their campaign in Kajang.

Between the two candidates, Wan Azizah seems to be campaigning more vigorously than Chew as she goes day  and night meeting every group and level of people in an unofficial way.

Wan Azizah has got no choice as she takes the campaign trail aggressively beginning Saturday, five days after nomination on Tuesday, given that the last five days was a ‘mistake’ when she pledged to end the voters grouses with efficient garbage collections, traffic jams and others.

Apparently, many voters claimed that it was her party – PKR state government responsibilities that have not been fulfilled and she was just revealing the state government’s weaknesses where the electorate were not cared for.

Thus, beginning Saturday, she changed her campaign line to weaknesses in BN’s policies and claimed victim of injustice when her husband was found guilty of a sodomy charge.

And to make sure voters get the message of the changed in the campaign line, she and her husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim comb every inch of Kajang state constituency soil so that none is left untouched.

Coffee shops talks among the Malays who comprised 48 percent of the voters, is the question on the need for the by-election which now sees Wan Azizah standing in for Anwar, the need to change assemblyman from from Lee Chin Cheh to Anwar and now Wan Azizah.

They are still puzzle with the need for Kajang Move from the very beginning where Anwar wanted to end the feud between Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, where the plot changed to Anwar wanting to be Mentri Besar himself.

However, the 41 percent Chinese voters who were said to have voted for the opposition in the May 2013 general election and who are said to be still in the same position, seem to enjoy the carnival-like campaign as thousands of campaigners flock to Kajang, giving them more business may it be in the coffee shops or retail.

The assumption from the many observers who witnessed the nightly ceramahs and day-time meet-the-people sessions of both the political divide, BN stands a good chance of reducing the majority of 6,824 gained in the May 2013 general election by as much as one-third.

They feel the Malay voters seem to doubt Anwar’s Kajang Move and they may not go out to vote or they may just throw their support to BN.

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