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MIC President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu was re-elected as party chief for another term -- 2009/2012. He was returned unopposed yesterday after presidential nomination closed at noon. His intended contender Datuk M. Muthupalaniappan could not contest as his nominations were in violation of the party constitution and the presidential election by-laws, according to presidential election steering committee head Datuk K. Vijayanathan. This would be the incumbent president's 11th consecutive term. He has vowed that this would his last term as president.
I know everyone knows about these facts and I know some nasty comments are just waiting to be fired. Please ensure your comments do not carry any disrespectful overtures. I welcome suggestions and constructive criticisms if any. Thank you.
The Barisan Nasional has named its candidates for all the three seats which would have its by-election on Apr 7. Nomination is set for Mar 29.
MIC's Datuk S. Ganeson has been named Bukit Selambau, Kedah state seat candidate, while Ismail Safian is the BN's man for the Bukit Gantang parliamentary constituency. The two are not novices or new faces. Ganeson was a one-time assemblyman for the then Lunas state seat. The 49-year old lawyer is also the MIC Kedah deputy chief.
Ismail on the other hand is the former Bukit Gantang Umno secretary in Perak. The teacher, also 49-years-old, is the former district council secretary.
Across the South China Sea, in Batang Ai, Sarawak state seat, the BN has named Malcolm Mussen Lamoh as its candidate. The 58-year-old is an avid sportsman. He has served as an engineer in the state Agriculture Department and is also a former lecturer at UPM and UiTM Sarawak.
While the candidates are relatively young with experiance, the BN expects to give a tough fight in the polls. MIC on the other hand will witness its first by-election in the 2008-2013 parliamentary term. This would be an acid test for the party, to see if it is accepted by the Indian population especially in Bukit Selambau after the March 8, 2008 general election. Obviously some comments are going to be nasty. That is ok but please be constructive in your criticisms. Thank you.
Another constituency joins the growing list of by-elections. This time the Batang Ai Sarawak state legislative constituency would hold its nomination on March 29 while polls have been set for April 7. These two dates are the same for the Bukit Selambau Kedah state assembly seat and Bukit Gantang parliamentary constituency. Another Bukit is still waiting for the state assemblywomen to return from leave. In this case it is Bukit Lanjan. Looks like the whole of March and the first two weeks of April would be full of politics.
While the three by-elections are set, Umno would hold its annual assembly to pick top national leaders starting March 24 to March 28. MIC on the other hand would hold its presidential election. Nominations for this election has been fixed for March 22 while polling is set for April 12.
Politics seems to have gone on an overdrive! The last few days, newspapers, Internet media and almost everyone I meet seem to be talking about Elizabeth Wong, the Bukit Lanjan state assembly person, whose nude or semi nude pictures had been circulated. Elizabeth, who is also a Selangor state exco, has lodged a police report on the matter and has offered to resign because of the unpleasant episode.
Let me state here that firstly it was wrong for someone in possession of such photos to distribute it in the public domain. It is all about her private life which should be left private. She has to deal with the perpetrator and get the police to bring him to justice. I sympathise with the energetic first term state assemblywoman.
Having said that, it must be noted that former Health Minister Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek had set a precedent back in 2007, on such issues after he resigned when a video of him having sex with his girlfriend was made public. He resigned from all positions at that time and made a fresh bid in politics a year later. He won the MCA deputy presidency last year and is back in mainstream politics.
Should Elizabeth follow this direction? That is the question the state assemblywomen has to answer herself. While I condemn the act of distributing her photos, she must also partly take the blame for the fiasco, taking into view talk about a purported video of her, which is also said to be in circulation. How could a trusted partner do this to her? My sincere sympathy for the 39-year old politician, who would now have to live with this scar for rest of her life.
If she chooses to vacate her post, then the Election Commission would have its hands full next month. It might just decide to hold three by-elections at one-go.
Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and Bukit Lanjan! What a coincidence that all involves Bukits. Other MPs and state assemblymen of Bukits may need to watch-out for the time being as the time for the Bukit is not so good, I guess. (That's a joke by the way).
Statistics of the Bukit Lanjan state seat is as follows.
The seat has a total 25,550 voters. At the last election in March 2008, 19,394 voters turned-up to vote or 75.9% voter turnout.
At that election, Elizabeth polled 12,125 votes against incumbent assembly person, former Gerakan's deputy wanita chief Yong Dai Ying, who obtained 6,970 votes.
Elizabeth won the seat with a 5,155 vote majority, the second highest majority won by a PKR state assembly candidate in Selangor last year.
If a by-election is called, it will be a tough seat to contest as the seat is located in an urban area and most of the voters are non-Malays. This is based on the assumption that most voters in the urban and non-Malay majority seats are more critical towards BN.
In Bukit Lanjan, the Chinese consist about 52% of the voters, Indians 17 per cent and the rest are Malay voters.
Suddenly we have an explosion of more politics in the country. After the fall of the opposition Perak state government, we have two by-elections. One is the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat in Perak and another the Bukit Selambau, Kedah state seat.
The P59 Bukit Gantang seat in Perak (near Taiping) has some 55,471 registered voters. At the 2008 election the seat was won by PAS' Roslan Shaharum with a majority of 1,566 votes.
Roslan, who died of heart attack a few days ago and the reason for the by-election, polled 20,015 against Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi of the BN-Umno 18,449 votes. Another candidate M. Morgan, an independent, polled 872 votes. Voter turnout in the seat at last year's election was 40,187 voters or 72.4% with 851 spoilt votes.
In N25 Bukit Selambau, the by-election is being held due to the resignation of V. Arumugam, initially an independent and now in Pakatan Rakyat. He beat MIC's S. Krishnan at the last general election.
The state seat has 34,977 voters. At the last election, Arumugam polled 13,225 votes against Krishnan's 10,863 votes to win with a 2,362 vote majority.Voter turnout at the last election was 25,782 votes or 73.7%.
While I hope both by-elections would be swept by the BN, I realise that the current political climate would make it an uphill battle especially with Kedah being opposition ruled while Perak has just come back to the BN in default.
It is also my feverish hope that the two by-elections would be conducted and participated in a fair and noble manner without any trouble.
The Election Commission would set the date for both the polls on Friday. Looks like February is going to be busy month with lots of travelling.UPDATE: Both the by-elections would have its nomination on March 29 and election on April 7.
