Indian voters will play a significant and even decisive role in Teluk Intan by election

Press Statement by M Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice Chairmanand MP for Ipoh Barat in Ipoh on Saturday, May 10, 2014

Indian voters will play a significant and even decisive role in Teluk Intan by election

DAP lost  a loyal fighter and dedicated parliamentarian when Sdr Seah Long Peng succumbed to bladder cancer on May 1. 

As  a reuslt of his untimely death, a by election of the Teluk Intan parliament seat will be held. Nomination and polling dates have been fixed on May 19 and 31 respectively. 

From all media reports, it looks almost certain that Gerakan President Datuk Ma Siew Keong who won the Teluk Intan seat twice in 1999 and 2004 will be fielded by BN although Ma had declared before that he would not be contesting in any general election during his campaign for Gerakan’s presidency.

Although Seah had won the seat in last year’s general election with  a majority of 7313 votes against Ma Siew Keong, the upcoming by election  will be challenging for the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat. 

In 2008, DAP’s Manogaran defeated Ma with  a majority of 1470 votes. Some newspaper analysis have recently said that the bigger DAP majority in 2013 was due to the fact that many Teluk Intan parliament voters who reside in other states and Singapore had returned to vote and it is unlikely that many of them will make  a special trip for the upcoming by election.

I therefore woukld like  to make an early call to all Teluk Intan voters who are now residing outside Teluk Intan to make themselves avaialble on the polling day to ensure DAP’s victory. 

The momentum of Pakatan Rakyat’s mission to  capture Putrajaya must be sustained and given new boost and a win in the Teluk Intan by election is there important. 

In this regard, the Indian voters who make up 19 % of the voter population can play a significant and decisve role in  the  outcome of the by election. 

In 1997 , DAP had turned around a BN majority of 13,968 in the 1995 general election to a DAP majority of 2,916 in the by-election which I was fielded as the DAP candidate.

A  key reason for this shocking upset victory was because 80% of the Indian voters had voted for DAP. 

I therefore call on the Indian voters to once again rise to the occasion when polling takes palce on May 31.