Politician speak “The results show that the people have the full confidence in our two leaders. It is also a sign that voters, especially the Chinese and Indian [Malaysians], have now returned to support [the Barisan Nasional (BN)].” “My win is due to a combination of factors. People are now back with BN. They are [...]

THERE are three ways to understand the stunning outcome of the Bagan Pinang by-election: Najib, Isa and the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). If you believe that the Barisan Nasional (BN)’s victory is really about Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia, then you would have to accept that Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad and the money politics [...]

HERE’S a statistic to think about: the nine by-elections since the March 2008 general election have seen a total of 36 candidates contesting. Only two, or less than 5.6%, of these candidates have been women. The two were L Sarala, who contested in the record-breaking Bukit Selambau by-election in April 2009, and Aminah Abdullah, who [...]

AFTER losing in all of the by-elections it has contested in the peninsula since March 2008, the Barisan Nasional (BN)’s Bagan Pinang win must taste like ambrosia. The BN’s candidate from Umno, Tan Sri Isa Samad, polled 8,013 votes against the 2,578 votes garnered by PAS’s Zulkefly Omar. In fact, Isa’s majority of 5,435 votes [...]

BAGAN Pinang initially awakened to light thunder and a drizzle on 11 Oct 2009; the kind of Sunday morning that is made for sleeping in. But today is polling day, the culmination of a week of bizarre and occasionally sluggish campaigning by both the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR). It is a tense [...]

FROM day one, the Barisan Nasional (BN) has been pulling out all the stops in its Bagan Pinang by-election campaign. Sure, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) managed to muster more than 4,000 supporters — more than double the BN’s — on nomination day. But since nominations closed, it is clear that the PR is struggling to [...]