Pulai polls: ‘Haram’ to vote for PH candidate, says Muhyiddin

JOHOR BARU: Perikatan Nasional chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has deemed it “haram” or sinful to vote for Pakatan Harapan’s Pulai parliamentary seat candidate Suhaizan Kayat.

He made the remark seemingly in jest during a Perikatan ceramah at Taman Kempas here on Saturday (Sept 2) night, which drew laughter from the crowd.

“Do not give even one vote to Suhaizan, the ex-(Johor) speaker. I deem it as haram.

“Tomorrow someone will challenge me which fatwa this was based on,” the former prime minister quipped.

The Pagoh MP claimed if Pakatan wins the Pulai parliamentary seat in the Sept 9 by-election, voters would be helping the Unity Government retain its two-thirds majority in Dewan Rakyat.

“Having a two-thirds majority will make it easy for them to make constitutional amendments, including the redelineation of electoral boundaries which is done every eight years.

“How do you think they will do this? They are sure to increase the current 222-seat Parliament by another 78 seats to 300.

“Where would they want these increases? Maybe in urban and densely populated areas.

“This is not a racial issue but the reality of the geo-politics here and in other areas.

“Gerrymandering will happen where they break up the constituency that does not support them and add seats in areas that support them.

“The urban areas are populated by the Chinese. A large chunk of those areas do not support us but I do not want to blame them,” he said, adding that this would then give more power to other parties, including DAP, come the 16th or 17th General Election.

It was previously reported that the next time the Election Commission will be able to conduct a redelineation exercise in Sarawak will be in 2023, 2025 for Sabah and 2026 for states in the peninsula.

Muhyiddin also claimed that the present government has no sympathy for the Malay struggle.

“We have effectively lost the sole authority to govern because the Malays, who constitute the majority, are now in the Opposition. We are in a difficult and dangerous situation,” he added.

The by-election for the Pulai parliamentary seat and Simpang Jeram state seat were held following the death of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub who was respectively the MP and assemblyman for the seats.

Pakatan’s Suhaizan is in a three-cornered fight against Perikatan’s Zulkifli Jaafar and Independent candidate Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi.

Pulai is a mixed seat with Malays making up 44.18% of the total 166,653 registered voters, followed by the Chinese (40.46%), Indians (12.31%) and other ethnicities (3.06%).

In the 15th General Election held in November last year, Salahuddin had defended the seat and won with 64,900 votes, which gave him a 33,174 majority against Barisan Nasional-Umno’s Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed (31,726 votes) and Loh Kah Yong from Perikatan-Gerakan (20,677 votes).