TELUK INTAN (Nov 13): Incumbent Teluk Intan Member of Parliament Nga Kor Ming has set a target of grabbing at least 25% of the Malay votes in the area in the 15th general election (GE15).

According to the Election Commission, 40.67% of voters in the constituency — one of 24 in Perak — are Malays, while 40.09% are Chinese, 18.64% are Indian, and the remaining 0.6% are of other races.

"We are targeting 25% to 30% at least for Malay support. We are working very hard towards that," Nga told The Edge after his political talk here at Kampung Sungai Suli on Sunday (Nov 13), which saw about 100 attendees, mostly Chinese.

"According to the Merdeka Centre survey, Pakatan Harapan (PH) is getting around 20% of Malay support, [but] we hope to get more. [We are] working very hard to convince our Malay friends that change is imminent," the Democratic Action Party (DAP) Perak chairman added.

Based on a survey of 1,209 voters from 22 parliamentary constituencies conducted by the Merdeka Centre from Oct 19 to 28, 32% of Malay voters preferred Barisan Nasional (BN), followed by PN (20%), and PH (13%).

Nga previously won the Teluk Intan seat in GE14 with a majority of 11,179 votes, against BN's Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia's Dr Ahmad Ramadzan.

When asked if non-Malay DAP supporters in Teluk Intan are ready to accept a Malay candidate from PH moving forward, Nga said the question is "irrelevant".

"I believe we have to move on, please, this is the golden opportunity. Malaysians must rise and transcend above race and religion. That is no longer the issue. Now the issue is everybody is struggling to put food on the table," he said.

"How to revive the economy is the real issue. That is why we want to have [Datuk Seri] Anwar [Ibrahim] as our prime minister. We have experienced the failure of the PN government. We have experienced the hyperinflation of Barisan Nasional and also the drop of our ringgit."

In GE15, he is facing three other candidates, namely Datuk T Murugiah from BN, Amir Khusyairi from Parti Pejuang Tanahair and Datuk Zainol Fadzi Paharudin from PN.

Teluk Intan has a total of 87,222 voters, with a majority of them, 19,479, in the 30-39 age bracket.

Get our comprehensive GE15 coverage here.