Let me make it very clear that I have not joined MCA in dismissing the
PKN claim that it had secured more votes from the Chinese voters in the
Indera Kayangan by-election on Saturday as compared to the 1999 general
elections, as borne out by the following three paragraphs from my media
statement yesterday:
“PKN claimed that despite its rout in the by-election, it had picked up more votes from the Malaysian Chinese, getting 620 votes on Saturday as compared to 152 votes during the 1999 general elections. It is a mystery as to how anyone can make such a specific and exact claim on the number of Malaysian Chinese votes (or of any racial group) secured by any party in elections, when voting is secret.“Be that as it may, if it is true that PKN secured 620 Malaysian Chinese votes in Indera Kayangan on Saturday, this would represent about 20 per cent of the Malaysian Chinese votes cast.
“It is sad if the maximum support that could be secured for the Damansara Chinese primary school and Vision school issues are only 20 per cent of the Malaysian Chinese voters, despite the hard campaigning by the Chinese education veteran Loot Ting Yu.”
The MCA has openly described the PKN claim as “ridiculous”
alleging that it was a mere “face-saving gesture”.
The DAP is not making or supporting any such claim, as we have no data to come to any such conclusion but Malaysians will like to know the voter trends in the Indera Kayangan by-election, not only among the Chinese voters but also the Malay and Indian voters as a guide to the post-911 Malaysian political scene.
PKN leaders however have not helped in throwing light on the voting
patterns in the Indera Kayangan by-election as they have made contradictory
claims after the polls, as shown by the following three examples:
BA BN2002 1999 2002 1999
Undi Melayu 40% 65% 60% 35%
Undi Cina 35% 5% 65% 95%
Undi pos 22 700
These three claims however do not tally with each other or with
the statistics when attempts are made to work them out on the basis of
the votes cast in the by-election as well as in the 1999 general elections.
As the Chinese and Malay votes in Indera Kayangan are almost even, being 46.4% and 47.4% or 3,701 and 3,781 respectively (with the rest 431 Indians or 5.4% and 63 others or 0.8%), one can make the assumption that the voting turnout applies to all the communities, which would mean that apart from the Indians and others, the rest of the votes are evenly divided between the Chinese and Malays.
On this premise, as the voter turnout in the by-election on Saturday was 75.99 per cent, this would mean a voter turn out of 2,812 Chinese voters and 2,873 Malay voters.
Based on Azmin’s claim of Chinese votes increasing from 20 per cent to 33 per cent, this would mean that in the by-election, PKN secured about 927 out of the 2,812 Chinese votes cast on Saturday (i.e. 33 per cent). This would leave the PKN candidate in the by-election with only 760 Malay votes, which would represent only 26.4 per cent of the 2,873 Malay votes cast on Saturday.
This 26.4 per cent Malay votes secured by PKN does not tally with the claim of 40 per cent Malay votes made by the PKN website, which would have to be 1,149 votes (40 per cent of 2,873 Malay voter turn-out). If the PKN official website claim of 35 per cent Chinese votes is correct, the percentage of Malay votes secured would be reduced even further to 24%!
It must be stressed that all these assumptions are made on the premise that the PKN did not get a single Indian or Others vote - which will drag down the Chinese or Malay votes for PKN even lower!
Using the PKN website claim that the PKN received 40 per cent Malay votes, or about 1,149 votes, then the Chinese votes would be drastically reduced to 538 votes (assuming that PKN did not win a single Indian or Others vote), which will work out to only be 19% of the Chinese votes cast.
If what Azmin had said earlier in the campaign was right, that PKN had secured about 300 Chinese votes in 1999, this would mean that PKN had marginally received more Chinese votes in the by-election, but only marginally in the region of about 240 and not 500 or 700 votes as had been claimed.
Malaysiakini yesterday came out with a new set of figures from PKN, claiming that its candidate secured 620 Chinese votes. This will mean that the PKN candidate secured 37% of the Malay votes cast, or even lower, if PKN had received votes from Indian and Others voters.
In summary, did PKN secure 800 or 900 Chinese votes or 35 per cent of the Chinese votes cast in the Indera Kayangan by-election as claimed by its leaders and website, which will reduce its percentage of Malay votes to below 30%? Or did it receive just over 500 Chinese votes, which is a marginal increase over the 300 votes it received in 1999?
Finally, going by the PKN website claim of securing 40% of Malay votes and 35% of Chinese votes, the total votes cast for PKN in the by-election should work out to 1149 + 984 + 22 to give 2,155 votes which is 468 votes more than what the PKN candidate actually received on Saturday - without getting a single Indian or Others vote.
(22/1/2002)