KUALA LUMPUR (May 5): Malay support for Pakatan Harapan is likely to increase in the Bentong Parliamentary seat due to less spending by Barisan Nasional in the current poll, according to the Opposition’s candidate Wong Tack.

The change is driven by two factors — fewer handouts compared to the last election and Wong’s consistent appearance in the rural areas, he said in an interview with theedgemarkets.com.

“The Malays’ standard of living has been deteriorating over the past two years as the cost of living has risen, and the BN (Barisan Nasional) government is tight financially as well. So the Malays, especially those who rely on handouts, are suffering,” he said.

“Unlike in the last election, when we hold big ceramah today, those sitting at the front rows are usually Malays or Indians. I think we have built up the community support over the past five years,” he said.

While Wong acknowledged that there is still significant Malay backing for BN’s candidate Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, the support is diminishing.

“Nowadays I rarely hear Malay residents saying that they are happy with the status quo, especially with the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad effect coming into play,” he said, in reference to the former Prime Minister’s leadership of the Opposition front.

“In Pelangai and Janda Baik, which have a lot of conservative voters and even an Umno training institute, the Opposition was not able to penetrate in the past. But today, we can have a hi-tea session there with the residents,” he said.

“There are people from the rural areas, even Felda settlements, who come to our operations centre and get the party flags to hang in their areas. We did not seek help from them. All these are done voluntarily. We don’t pay them a salary. Yesterday, the chairman of the National Felda Settlers' Children Association (ANAK) Mazlan Aliman visited Pelangai. They had a get-together session and invited me there to join them,” he said.

Wong also said it is a good sign that no analyst could predict GE14 outcome for Bentong even though it is less than a week before the polling date.

“The fact that until today, nobody can come to a conclusion on which party is ahead in the run-up to GE14 is a good sign for us. Imagine we are going against massive election machinery led by the MCA president himself, the kind of resources and talent he can mobilise is huge. Plus he is the 10-year incumbent, and his party has been here for a few decades. But at this moment, a nobody such as myself, I don’t even have a datuk-ship, not even a position in the party, can take part in the Bentong election and he (Liow) can’t have any advantage, meaning the people are really preparing to go against him,” he said.

The Bentong Parliamentary seat will see a three-cornered fight. After nominations, the Election Commission announced that the seat will be contested between Liow, Wong, and PAS’ Supporters Club chairman Balasubramaniam Nachiappan.

Bentong has 67,359 registered voters, of whom 47% are Malays, 44% Chinese, 8% Indians and about 1% indigenous people.

In GE13, the seat was contested between Liow and Wong, with Liow winning by a slim majority of 379 votes. There were 62,266 registered voters then, and the turnout rate was 84.5%.

Wong got 25,568 votes, versus Liow’s 25,947 votes, while 988 votes were rejected.

While Wong claimed he has the rural community’s support, Liow, on the other hand, is widely seen as putting much effort into servicing the constituency over the past five years, not to mention the stake he has in this competition being the MCA President and Transport Minister.

It is also worth noting that in GE13, Wong had the support of PAS, which was part of the Opposition coalition back then.

Today, after breaking away from the coalition, PAS has also placed a candidate in Bentong, which could dilute votes for both BN and PH, adding to the difficulty in predicting the outcome for this constituency.