(Updated 7.20pm, 17 Jan 2009) Polling at Sekolah Kebangsaan Pusat Bukit Bandar, where Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh and wife Toh Puan Intan Baizura Abdul Wahab cast their votes KUALA TERENGGANU: All 36 polling centres for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary by-election were closed at 5pm today. Election Commission (EC) chairperson Tan Sri Abdul Aziz […]
pas
Why just hudud?
By Jacqueline Ann SurinIT is understandably very easy to demonise PAS for its Islamic state agenda. After all, the party leadership seems quite adept at declaring its intentions to implement some features of an Islamic state, such as hudud, at the most inopportune moments. In a global climate of Islamophobia and because of Muslims acting out of a […]
Positive and negative campaigning
By Danny Lim and Deborah LohBOTH Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional (BN) have taken different approaches with their ceramahs in Kuala Terengganu’s by-election. Those on PAS candidate Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut’s campaign team repeatedly raise topics like the perceived abuses of power by BN and the issue of oil royalty. Among these supporters are blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin and Lembah […]
Reckoning with the electorate
By Deborah LohBN streamer in front of a temple in Kampung Cina IN the March 2008 general election, the 11% Chinese Malaysian voters in Kuala Terengganu were considered the swing voters in this largely Malay Malaysian constituency. Analysts have predicted that the Chinese Malaysian vote will also decide the results of the upcoming 17 Jan by-election as […]
On the ceramah trail
By Danny LimCorrected on 15 Jan 2009 at 1am PAS ceramah in Kampung Panji, in the Wakaf Mempelam state constituency, surrounded by shrubbery IN the first half of a cool campaign that has matched the breeze blowing in from the South China Sea, the barrage of issues lobbed between the two major competing parties has mostly avoided […]
DAP threatens to leave Pakatan Rakyat over “hudud”
KUALA LUMPUR, 14 Jan 2009: The DAP today threatened to withdraw from the Pakatan Rakyat, which also comprises PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), if PAS insists on implementing the “hudud” laws (Islamic penal code) if the opposition alliance comes to power in the country. DAP chairperson Karpal Singh, in issuing the warning, reiterated that […]
The art of campaigning
By Cindy Tham and Lainie YeohTHERE appears to be an art to displaying election campaign flags and flyers. The sights that greeted us as we drove around Kuala Terengganu from 10 to 12 Jan 2009 seemed to indicate that. The size of the flags, the effect of putting them against contrasting colours or a significant landmark, using tall flagpoles versus […]
Keeping the BN afloat
By Wong Chin HuatCorrected on 14 Jan 2009, 3.30pm I ARGUED previously that the Kuala Terengganu by-election is a battle in which Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has little to gain and much to lose. A real turning point would happen only if Umno can seriously bring down PAS’s support to below 45% among Malay Malaysians […]
Abolish postal votes for security personnel: PAS
KUALA TERENGGANU, 13 Jan 2009: PAS wants the Election Commission (EC) to abolish postal votes for police and military personnel. While praising the EC for allowing candidates’ agents to be present during postal voting yesterday for the Kuala Terengganu by-election, the Islamic party, which is part of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition, insists that this […]
Wahid’s likeability factor
By Deborah LohPAS candidate Abdul Wahid Endut on his walkabout to meet voters in Kg Cina THOUGH PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang claims divine intervention in his selection of the party’s candidate for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary by-election, there could be a more earthly, tactical reason. There is a story about the candidate, Abdul Wahid […]