• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
The Nut Graph

The Nut Graph

Making Sense of Politics & Pop Culture

  • Projects
    • MP Watch
    • Found in Conversation
  • Current Issues
    • 6 Words
    • Commentary
    • Features
    • Found in Quotation
    • News
  • Columns
  • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Found in Malaysia
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Pictures
    • Videos
  • Corrections
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Vault
    • Found in Translation

PKR triumphant in Bukit Selambau

By Shanon Shah

April 7, 2009

SUNGAI PETANI, 7 Apr 2009: The Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s novice candidate S Manikumar trounced the Barisan Nasional (BN)’s Datuk S Ganesan with a convincing 2,403-vote majority today in the Bukit Selambau by-election.

It was an increased majority compared with the results of the March 2008 general election where, independent-candidate-turned-Parti-Keadilan-Rakyat-member V Arumugam won by a 2,362-vote majority against the BN’s Krishnan Subramaniam.

In today’s by-election, Manikumar polled 12,632 votes to Ganesan’s 10,229 across 65 streams — including postal votes — in 22 voting districts.


The winner, PKR’s Manikumar

The record-breaking 13 independent candidates all lost their deposits. Major (Rtd) Anuar Abdul Hamid was the independent with the highest number of votes: 528.

The independents garnered a collective total of 1,326 votes. There were 415 spoilt votes.

The final official tally for the grueling by-election was announced by the Election Commission (EC) at 10.50pm tonight.

Speaking to reporters after the announcement of his victory, Manikumar thanked voters for giving him a chance. He also thanked the PAS and DAP machinery for helping his candidacy.

The 35-year-old debut politician from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) said he would open his service centre within 48 hours.

PKR vice-president Azmin Ali said the party’s 12,632 votes this time appeared fewer than independent V Arumugam’s 13,225 votes in the March 2008 general election because many votes were “taken” by the independents, and also because of the lower voter turnout.

The EC confirmed that voter turnout this time was 70.28% compared with 73.7% in March 2008.


Ganesan
Azmin also said that the PR’s victories in both Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau were a clear referendum against the BN federal administration, given the ascension of new Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The MIC’s Ganesan was not present at the tallying centre, and neither were any BN leaders.

Not a rejection

Bernama reported Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as saying the BN’s failure to wrest back the Kedah state seat did not mean the people rejected the country’s new leadership.

He said there were several local and national factors that contributed to the BN’s loss.

“That (the people’s rejection of Najib as the new prime minister) is not the case, because he has only just taken over the leadership of the country and has not even announced his cabinet line-up yet.

“Give us some time. We’ll prove that the BN’s politics is not sensational or seasonal and centred on certain issues only, but is a struggle that is consistent and takes into consideration the needs and aspirations of the people,” he said at the BN election operations room here tonight.

He added that the defeat also served as a useful lesson for the BN to face the 13th general election, which must be held by 2012.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related Stories

Filed Under: News Tagged With: BN, Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau, by-election, deposit, hishamuddin hussein, increased, independent, kedah, majority, PKR, poll, S Ganesan, S Manikumar, Umno, V Arumugam

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. zOOl says

    April 8, 2009 at 12:36 am

    Tahniah Saudara Manikumar.

    “Not a rejection”? = denial syndrome

    Rakyat menolak PM baru bukan sebab barisan kabinet tapi sebab kes-kes mahkamah yang meragukan…

  2. Ming says

    April 8, 2009 at 1:13 am

    Isn’t it amazing that despite the daily deluge of dire news coming from the so-called PKR camp reported by the press, Anwar and a “novice” candidate pulled it off? What does this say about the quality of journalism reports in the country? Nothing we read in the print media or watch on broadcast television can be trusted. That leaves us the internet and SMS. Will PM allow them to go unfettered for long?

  3. Siew Eng says

    April 8, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    I love this quote: “We’ll prove that the BN’s politics not sensational or seasonal…”

    I’m thinking “seasoning” is the word – as in, the seasoning for instant noodles.

  4. tangkup says

    April 8, 2009 at 3:39 pm

    Kemenangan PR di Bukit Selambau dan Bukit Gantang jelas membuktikan bahawa rakyat di negara ini inginkan perubahan. Kerajaan BN selama 50 tahun telah menjalankan sistem “menakut”kan rakyat; memberi projek “mi cepat dimasak” pada setiap pilihanraya umum dan kecil. Taktik ini sudah bangas. BN boleh tipu rakyat tapi rakyat sekarang sudah pandai menilai. Keputusan PRK Bukit Selambau dan Bukit Gantang adalah hasil penilaian rakyat.

    Syabas PR. Sekarang tumpukan pembangun insan dan fisikal dengan adil. Ingat konsep Malaysia Economic Policy. Bertindak dengan adil dan saksama agar semua rakyat Malaysia dapat menikmati kekataan negara sama rata dan bukan untuk satu komuniti sahaja.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Twitter

My Tweets

Recent Comments

  • Wave33 on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Adam on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • PSTan on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • PSTan on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Andre Lai on The Nut Graph stops publication

Recent News

  • The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Nasihat tentang sepupu yang mengganggu perasaan
  • Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: The Sunni-Shia split and the answer to Muslim unity
  • Why Malaysia needs the national unity bills
  • Challenging government in the digital age: Lessons from Kidex
  • Najib’s failure
  • Babi, anjing, pondan: Jijik orang Islam Malaysia
  • Kidex and the law – What the government’s not telling you
  • Beyond Dyana Sofya
  • Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: Does Malaysia need hate speech laws?

Tags

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Anwar Ibrahim Barisan Nasional BN Bukit Selambau by-election dap Deborah Loh Ding Jo-Ann Election Commission elections Found in Malaysia Found in Quotation Gan Pei Ling government high court Hishammuddin Hussein ISA islam Jacqueline Ann Surin Khairy Jamaluddin KW Mak Lim Guan Eng Malaysia MCA Menteri Besar MP Watch Muhyiddin Yassin muslim Najib Razak Pakatan Rakyat Parliament Parti Keadilan Rakyat pas Penang Perak PKR police politics prime minister Selangor Shanon Shah Umno Wong Chin Huat Zedeck Siew

Footer

  • About The Nut Graph
  • Who Are We?
  • Our Contributors
  • Past Contributors
  • Guest Contributors
  • Editorial Policy
  • Comments & Columns
  • Copyright Policy
  • Web Accessibility Policy
  • Privacy Policy
The Nut Graph

© 2023 The Nut Graph