PAKATAN Harapan must not assume that just because it is the federal government, voters will naturally support it at elections, DAP’s Dr Ong Kian Ming said, noting the increased vote share Barisan Nasional obtained among Malay voters in the recent Cameron Highlands by-election.

Analysing the outcome of Saturday’s polls, Ong, the party’s assistant national director for political education, said PH must work “much harder and more systematically” to win over these voters.

“We have another four years and counting to take on the lessons learned from this by-election.

“Just because PH is in power at the federal level, we cannot assume that there will be a natural shift in support towards the federal government among those groups which are more reliant on the support provided by the federal government. 

“These include the Orang Asli and Felda settlers, two of the most important voting groups in Cameron Highlands,” the Bangi MP and deputy international trade and industry minister said in a statement today.

The only silver lining for PH in the by-election was the inroads it made among Orang Asli voters.

“PH was able to increase its support in the OA majority polling stations by 11.3% but this was too far off from the 30-40% OA support which PH needed to have a chance of winning the seat,” he said.

And where average voter turnout among the Chinese, Indian, Malay and mixed polling stations dropped, turnout in Orang Asli-majority polling stations increased by 0.4%, he added.

PH managed to achieve a 70% support level among Chinese and Indian voters, although this was lower than the above-70% share in GE14.

Overall, he said PH’s share of the popular vote increased slightly by 1.4%, from 38.6% in GE14 to 40.% in the by-election.

As for BN, Ong attributed its higher share of votes and its increased majority of 3,238 votes compared with its 597 majority in GE14 to its cooperation with PAS.

“(BN won) most of the votes obtained by PAS in GE14.

“Where BN really made a big leap was in the Malay-majority polling stations in Jelai where it increased its average vote share (by a) whopping 38.9%. This means that almost all of the votes won by PAS in in GE14 were ‘transferred’ to BN in the by-election.” – January 28, 2019.