Pulai by-election: Indian voters could play significant role in outcome of the poll, says MIC veep

JOHOR BARU: The Indian community, who make up about 12% of the voters in the Pulai parliamentary constituency, are not “kingmakers” but could significantly contribute to the outcome of the by-election, says MIC.

Its vice-president Datuk M. Asojan said there were more than 20,000 Indian voters in the constituency’s 166,653 registered voters in this by-election.

Asojan however, refused to label the Indians as kingmakers.

“We cannot outright label the community as that because it depends on the voter turnout as the voters in Pulai are different from other places like Kuala Lumpur or Kedah – many in Johor are working in Singapore.

“The voter turnout in the state election was about 60% while the 15th General Election was about 70%.

“A lower turnout is usually expected for a by-election but MIC will be trying our best to convince voters, especially from the Indian community, to head out to vote,” he said after attending a meeting with the Johor Federation of Registered Indian Associations here on Thursday (Aug 31).

According to the Election Commission, the Pulai parliamentary seat has 44.18% (73,619) Malay voters, 40.46% (67,434) Chinese voters and 12.31% (20,508) Indian voters while 3.06% (5092) are of other ethnicities.

Asojan added that MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran had also met with the party’s election machinery earlier on the same day to clear doubts and explain the need to support the unity government as well as Pakatan Harapan’s Pulai candidate Suhaizan Kayat.

“There is dissatisfaction here and there regarding recent issues, which I will not mention, but we should support Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as he has promised to solve the problems faced by the Indian community in a year’s time,” he added.

Meanwhile, MIC national education bureau chief Datuk Nelson Renganathan, in his speech at the event, urged the community to throw their support behind the Pakatan candidate for the Pulai parliamentary seat and Simpang Jeram state seat come polling day on Sept 9.

“We should help them win and once they do, we will push them to fulfill their promises,” he added.

The Pulai by-election was triggered by the demise of Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, who aside from being the Pulai MP, was the Simpang Jeram assemblyman and Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister.

The Pulai constituency will see a three-cornered fight between Pakatan’s Suhaizan, Perikatan Nasional’s Zulkifli Yahya and Independent candidate Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi.

In the 15th General Election, Salahuddin had defended the seat and won with a 33,174 majority against Barisan Nasional-Umno’s Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed (31,726 votes) and Loh Kah Yong from Perikatan Nasional-Gerakan (20,677 votes).