Machap by-election, 2007

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The 2007 Machap by-election will be held on April 12, 2007. The seat in the state assembly of Malacca, Malaysia, fell vacant after the incumbent, Datuk Wira Poh Ah Tiam, passed away on 15 March that year. On March 21 2007, the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC) announced April 3 2007 as the nomination day and April 12 2007 the election date.^[1]

1 Background
2 Candidates
3 Issues
4 Polling
5 Notes and References

[edit] Background

State assembly seat N.08 Machap lies in parliamentary seat P.135 Alor Gajah. As of the 2004 General Elections, Machap was a majority Chinese seat (45.6%), followed by Malays (38.3%), Indians (15.3%) and others (0.7%). In the 2004 election, the late Datuk Wira Poh Ah Tiam of the Barisan Nasional (BN) garnered 5,847 votes, defeating Liou Chen Kuang of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) (1,285 votes) by a majority of 4,562 votes.^[2]

[edit] Candidates

[edit] Pre-nomination speculation

The English language daily The Star reported on March 17, 2007 that the opposition People's Justice Party (PKR) was the first to express interest in contesting the seat, with its information chief Tian Chua as the likely candidate.^[3] Meanwhile on March 20, 2007, the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) declared it would not field a candidate in the by-election, citing the fact that the seat has traditionally been a DAP versus BN contest.^[4] The DAP and the ruling BN (a coalition of parties including the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), of which Poh was a member) declined to comment on their plans until after Poh's funeral on March 21, 2007.^[5]

Nonetheless, this did not stop the media from speculating. Those linked to Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn, the Malaysian Minister of Human Resources, MP for Alor Gajah and MCA vice-president, were named as possible BN candidates. The list included Fong's special assistant Ngow Dow Soon, his political secretary Lai Meng Chong and his private secretary Chew Chong Lin.^[6] From the opposition camp, besides PKR's Tian Chua, potential candidates from the DAP include Liou Chen Kuang, whom Poh had beaten in the last general election, or Tey Kok Kiew, special assistant to the party’s secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.^[6]

On March 22, 2007, PKR and DAP reached an agreement, whereby PKR will yield the seat to DAP in the by-election, but will contest the seat in the next General Elections.^[7]. PKR has also agreed to provide support to DAP but will not be directly involved in campaigning.^[8] Meanwhile, MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting announced on March 26, 2007 that an MCA Presidential Council meeting on March 27, 2007 will choose the BN's candidate. The chosen candidate will be revealed after obtaining formal approval from the BN chairman, incumbent Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.^[9]

[edit] Nominated candidates

On March 30, 2007, the DAP announced its candidate for the seat in the 2004 General Elections, 33-year old Liou Chen Kuang, will contest in the by-election. Liou, a businessman, was chosen again despite losing in the last election. He was chosen due to his "knowledge of the local terrain", grassroots support, and "ever willing to serve Machap constituents”. ^[10] The DAP further revealed that the party would use the slogan Machap Demokrasi (Machap Democracy) to raise awareness among voters on the importance of democracy in Malaysia.^[10]

Three days later, on April 2, 2007, the BN deputy chairman and incumbent Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak named a local MCA politician, 56-year old Lai Meng Chong as the coalition's candidate for the by-election. ^[11]

[edit] Nomination day scuffle

During nomination day on April 3, 2007, a scuffle occurred between DAP and BN supporters. Two DAP supporters were injured in the scuffle, which erupted after some name-calling and sloganeering.^[12] Following the incident, police arrested a man after receiving four reports, two from the injured man, and two each from a journalist and a photographer from the Tamil dailies Malaysian Nanban and Makkal Osai, respectively.^[12]

[edit] Issues

[edit] Election irregularities

The opposition parties had alleged that the country's election process was not transparent and could be manipulated. However, the EC chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman on March 21, 2007 denied the allegations and challenged political parties to take the commission to court on the matter.^[13]. Despite the denial, the DAP described the EC’s move of not fixing the elections on a weekend as an "act of biasness to benefit the BN".^[14]

On March 27, 2007, as an attempt to counter the opposition's grievances on the transparency of the election process, the EC announced that new, translucent plastic ballot boxes will be used in the by-elections, replacing the black metal ballot boxes used in previous elections. According to the EC, the new box is also lighter at only 500 grams, as compared to the metal box, which weighed 1.5 kg. ^[15]

[edit] Opposition boycott

Due to alleged irregularities in the Malaysian election process, two major opposition parties, PAS and DAP, boycotted the January 2007 Batu Talam State by-election in Pahang, which the BN won after defeating an independent candidate^[13]. DAP's decision to now contest in Machap has led the BN to accuse opposition parties of being "inconsistent" with regards to boycotting elections.^[16]

[edit] Chinese support for the BN

Some pundits opine that the Machap by-election, given the constituency's ethnic composition, may reflect support from the Chinese community for the ruling BN.^[17]^[18] Many Chinese voters abandoned the BN in the 2006 Sarawak state elections, BN's worst showing in a long time in the traditionally safe state, whereby nine seats, seven of which were predominantly Chinese, went to the opposition. The dissatisfaction is because of economic issues and a renewed push by some Malay BN politicians for more privileges.^[17]^[18] A December 2006 survey by independent social research outfit the Merdeka Centre, found that 60% of Chinese voters nationwide were open to voting for the opposition.^[18]