KUALA LUMPUR, August 28 – Former UMNO Youth Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, does not rule out the possibility of Pakatan Harapan (PH) losing the Simpang Jeram State Assembly seat if there is a shift of 70 to 80 percent of Barisan Nasional (BN) votes to Perikatan Nasional (PN) in the upcoming by-election on September 9th.
“The shift in votes during the Simpang Jeram by-election can occur if BN’s votes in the Johor state election, which were 6,062, are combined with PN’s votes (6,350), making it 12,000… more than what PH received (8,749). A 70 to 80 percent shift of BN votes to PN is enough for PH to lose in Simpang Jeram,” he said during the Keluar Sekejap podcast with former UMNO Information Chief, Shahril Sufian Hamdan, on Sunday. However, Khairy expects the Pulai parliamentary seat in the concurrent by-election with the state seat to be retained by PH-BN, based on the results of the 15th General Election (GE15).
The Election Commission (EC) previously set the nomination date for the Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram State Assembly by-elections for August 26th, early voting on September 5th, and polling day on September 9th. These by-elections were triggered by the sudden passing of Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub on July 23rd, who was also the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. Elaborating further, Khairy said the PN wave can penetrate BN’s stronghold in Johor based on the voter shift trend following the state election on August 12th.
He noted that PN candidates in the area have strong backgrounds. If that is the trend, I believe this is more than just Sanusi Mania because it can attract Malay professionals and intellectuals. As we know, during the recent state election, there was an opportunity for PN to win the Simpang Jeram State Assembly seat based on the number of voters,” he said.
