THE Balik Pulau constituency in Penang is expected to be a key battleground for Malay votes in the next general election, with PKR former MP Yusmadi Yusoff confident his party will be able to hold off challenges from other parties.

The senator told The Malaysian Insight that Balik Pulau will also be a big-ticket seat for the Malay parties wanting to show that they are the preferred choice of the community.

The voter roll used in the last general election showed that Malays make up 65% of the 59,000 electoral votes in the district.

Yusmadi was elected to the Dewan Rakyat in 2008 with a slim majority of only 708 votes, but PKR lost the Bayan Lepas, Pulau Betong and Teluk Bahang state seats.

Balik Pulau is currently held by Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik who recaptured the seat in 2018 for the opposition with a majority of 6,464 votes.

At the same time, PH scooped the three state seats for the first time, which political observers described as a wave of rejection by the Malays of the BN government.

However, PH is at risk of losing such Malay majority seats if it fails to regain the confidence of the Malay voters.

PH will narrowly win in Balik Pulau

Yusmadi believes that PKR will win with a small majority, even if there are serious challenges from various opponents.

He said, among others, voters in Balik Pulau have an anti-establishment streak and were not averse to voting against the incumbent party.

For example, even though they were Malay, they were brave enough to vote for Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) during the country’s political crisis in 1969, he added.

“In terms of history, voters did not follow the central trend, except in 2018. For example, when there was a push for reform in 1999, many places supported PKR.

“We won the parliamentary seat but lost the state seats within the constituency, even at that time people said it was a political tsunami,” he said.

In addition to the Malays in Balik Pulau, the electorate is 30% Chinese and 5% Indian voters.

Most of the voters live in an area that divides the island region into two, extending in the west from Teluk Kumbar and Pulau Betong in the south to Teluk Bahang in the north.

Most of the Malay voters are working class with some involved in the tourism and fishing sectors.

Yusmadi said he was confident that a multi-candidate line-up would ultimately benefit PKR because only the Malay vote would be split, while other ethnic groups would choose his party.

Local issues, local candidates are the focus

However, he said PKR also faces challenges with some local issues that may affect the voter pattern.

Among the hot issues for PH is the issue of the reclamation project and the proposal to create a modern dormitory for foreign workers in the Bayan Lepas state constituency, to which residents are objecting.

In addition, the issue of rapid development, especially in the rural areas of Balik Pulau, is also a hot topic because it is feared that it will affect the demographics of the local population.

“This matter has been going on for quite some time, but from the data we don’t have an exact figure to what extent incoming voters have moved to Balik Pulau and contributed to the increase of non-Malay voters,” he said.

At the same time, candidates also need to be chosen from among locals to win the hearts, Yusmadi said.

Meanwhile, a party activist said multiple candidates are expected to stand in the next election.

The activist, who did not want to be named, said parties such as Pejuang and Warisan have shown interest in contesting.

Therefore, he did not rule out PKR facing a difficult challenge due to the split in Malay votes.

“The Malay vote will be divided. From our research, the Malay vote (to) PKR will split and will go to PN, but the votes of Amanah and non-Malay voters are still intact,” he said.

However, the party cadre said it is too early to conclude that PH would lose.

“In the Balik Pulau area there will be an increase of 17,000 new voters, so we still can’t guess their sentiments. – August 21, 2022.