It's touch and go as rivals enter final lap

By Zainal Epi

SIBU: The warring parties in the Sibu parliamentary by-election went into fifth gear as they make their final pitch for votes.
Today is the last day for campaigning before the 54,600-odd voters cast their ballots tomorrow. Many analysts forecast that both rivals are neck and neck – in short, it is touch and go.
DAP's Wong Ho Leng is facing Barisan Nasional’s Robert Lau Hui Yew and independent Narawi Haron in the contest for the coveted seat.
The DAP is banking on Chinese votes while the ruling coalition is attempting to win over the Chinese electorate as it feels confident that it has the Malay and Bumiputera votes in its bag.
Chinese comprise 67% of the total votes, Malays 0.2% and the rest Bumiputera.
DAP with the help of PAS and PKR, its partners in the loose alliance called Pakatan Rakyat, had tried to raise national issues in the early stages of the campaign, but later switched tactics and started focusing on local matters.
The DAP concentrated its rockets on Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, crying foul for his alleged practice of nepotism and cronyism. It also played up on issues pertaining to land.
With 30% of the Chinese electorate loyal to the party, the DAP has been working hard to get the Bumiputera (mainly the Dayak and Iban) in the longhouses and young Chinese fence-sitters to come aboard.
A far-off dream
In the meantime, the BN, despite facing several setbacks, is inching towards the finishing line and is said to be leading by a small margin.
The party had brought in big guns like Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to woo the voters in the hope of chalking up a higher margin of victory than it had in the 2008 general election.
However, despite a slight increase in the headcount from the Chinese, the BN is losing its grip on the Malays by the day.
The majority of the Malays numbering about 4,000 are in Nangka, which is also the bastion of power of Parti Pesaka Bersatu (PBB), the backbone of the Sarawak BN.
The Malays in Nangka felt slighted when Najib made his touted walkabouts around Sibu town, shaking hands and dining with the Chinese residents.
The Nangka Malays are also angry with their state assemblyman Awang Bamee for not serving them well. Despite the assurance given by PBB’s top leadership that Awang would not contest the coming state election scheduled before end of the year, the Malay electorate is sceptical.
For BN, losing the Malay votes would mean trouble as its target of winning over the Chinese electorate seems to be a far-off dream. Words had it that BN has succeeded in getting about 38% of the Chinese votes, well below the 43% mark.
With Malay voters in Nangka rapidly slipping away, BN is indeed facing an uphill battle to retain Sibu.
As for the Bumiputera voters, the BN seems to be getting a big chunk of them despite the full-scale attack from the DAP. The 10,000-odd voters residing in the 92 longhouses seem to be backing the BN warhorse, although some are openly voicing support for the DAP.
The race is too close to call but if the turnout of voters is 65% and above, the BN is said to have a slight chance of standing as the winner on the podium of the port town of Sibu.