It was a stunning victory for Anwar Ibrahim. Despite the mounting odds stack against him, he with the help of friends from the PR, and with the will of the rakyat, wrote a new chapter in Malaysia’s politics.
Putting all the euphoria aside, I will now try to enlighten and uncover interesting numbers and facts in what has been dubbed as BN’s most stunning loss post GE12.
In the span of 5 months since Mar 8th, a total of 10 new voters were added in the constituency of Permatang Pauh. Total voters were 58,459. Despite polling day falling on a weekday, voter turnout stood at an impressive 80.84%. There were 676 people less from the previous poll. Had polling day fallen on a weekend, and some folks not forgotten to bring their ICs, I am optimistic of a 90-95% turnout.
Anwar from PKR received a total of 31,195 votes or 61% of the total votes. This was 847 more votes than what his wife cum President of PKR Wan Azizah had garnered on the 8th of Mar.
Arif Shah from the BN lost 1,426 votes or about 2.5% less votes compared to the last BN candidate who gained 16,950 votes in the last general elections. Arif Shah effectively receives 15,524 votes and takes 32.85% of the total votes.
Meanwhile the independent candidate from AKIM, Hanafi Hamat receive so little votes that its probably better to count it as spoilt votes.
Total spoilt votes were less by 189. This is an improvement considering that there are probably less fence sitters this time around.
Anwar received 2273 more majority votes bagging 15,671 compared to Wan Azizah’s 13,398. With the bigger majority, this means that he has 100.96% more votes than his competitor. To compare Azizah, only had a 79.04% lead over Datuk Pirdaus. With this majority, it represents 33.16% share of the total voter casted. This is 0.31% or 147 more votes than what Arif Shah had received.
Facts and figures don’t lie. The numbers presented in this analysis proves Anwar’s popularity with the rakyat. He’s becoming more of an icon…the Che Guavera of Malaysia.
The fact that it was planned to run on a weekday proved futile for the ruling party. They’ve pulled all stops on this one man, but a ruling government with the ammunition of the mass media, the police, and deep pockets can’t stop his resurrection.
And finally, after a decade of absence from Parliament, he will finally step into Parliament on 28th Aug, in time to debate the tabling of the 2009 budget.
Credit should go to the BN (Speaker for Parliament, Pandikar Amin) for the one good decision to swear in Anwar to Parliament 2 days after he was announced the winner of the by-election. This move has saved the BN from more attacks by the rakyat and PR of being biased, lopsided and practice double standard. And to think that several days before the 26th he said that there is no rush and Anwar would probably be sworn in mid Sept.
But then again, could Pandikar Amin be one of Anwar’s Trojan horse? How many more Trojan horses are there in the BN that would immediately come out when the night has fallen and Pak Lah sleeps?
The drama continues…
IAG