BRICKBATS were hurled at Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli who was put in-charge of yesterday’s (July 6) Sungai Bakap by-election after he conveniently hinted that the poor turnout of Chinese and Indian voters had resulted in the votes swung in favour of the opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN) faction.

In his preliminary analysis of the polls, the PKR deputy president had attributed the turnout of 70% Malays, Chinese (47%) and Indians (58%) as having turned the Sungai Bakap state seat into a “major Malay majority seat with election channels switched from Malays-Non-Malays to 75:25 from 55:45 (previously)”.

“Although there was a slight shift in the Malay vote, the result was largely influenced by the number of voters who came out,” he justified in a post on the X platform.

The Pandan MP’s observation was ‘greeted’ by PN political activist Jauhari Johar who deemed that “PH’s (Pakatan Harapan) deposit voters seem to no longer falling for PH’s lies and propaganda”.

“If this trend continues and BN (Barisan Nasional) remaining with PH ahead of GE16 (16^th General Election), PKR and Amanah will be wiped out, hence allowing PN to form a government with Sabah and Sarawak without DAP seats,” contended Jashari in a tweet.

Another opposition-slant social media influencer described how PN “has won in style” with a spiked majority of 4,269 votes compared to 1,563 previously”:

He gave seven reasons why the victory with a bigger margin is meaningful to the opposition faction which was an incumbent in the state seat:

#1 - The Federal Government and the State Government are controlled by PH;

#2 - Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had offered two development projects if PH had won the polls;

#3 - Rafizi had himself claimed that PN’s campaign was filled with weaknesses and there were PN’s polling district centres which were closed;

#4 - The Sungai Bakap state seat falls under the Nibong Tebal parliamentary constituency which is under Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek;

#5 - Penang PKR is hlmed by PMX’s (Prime Minister Dastuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar;

#6 - The PKR candidate Dr Joohari Ariffin is a PhD holder;

#7 - UMNO supreme council member Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said that there was nothing wrong for ministries to organise programmes whereby developmental allocation are mooted during by-election

Whatever the post-mortem was, PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang hailed the victory by PAS candidate Abidin Ismail as “very meaningful to PN which is competing on an uneven playing field marred by a lame democratic process and rampant political corruption”.

“The outcome of this by-election is a signal of the people’s rejection of PH-BN’s failure to manage the economy and defend the welfare of the people regardless of age and race,” added the Marang MP. - July 7, 2024

https://focusmalaysia.my/rafizi-trolled-on-social-media-for-blaming-phs-sg-bakap-by-election-loss-on-non-malays/