BARISAN Nasional, the underdog in the Sungai Kandis by-election, will rely more on technology and social media in its campaign, said Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa.
Now an opposition party, Umno no longer has the resources or advantage of incumbency to woo voters as it had before its rule of federal government was broken in the May 9 general election.
Speaking to The Malaysian Insight at the filing of nominations for the Selangor state seat yesterday, Annuar was asked if BN would employ the use of ceramah as Pakatan Harapan did to winning effect when it was the opposition.
BN is fielding Umno firebrand Lokman Noor Adam against PKR’s Zawawi Ahmad Mughni, a tahfiz school principal, and independent K. Murthy, a retired civil servant. Polling is on August 4.
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BN’s new method will “maximise touching base with voters”, he added.
He said technology will allow the party to reach many people, a boon as BN’s machinery is no longer what is was post-GE14.
“Being a political party, we should be able to build our own party strength with or without a government machinery,” said Annuar.
The first test run of this method was a dialogue with Lokman and Selangor Umno chairman Ismail Sabri Yaakob livestreamed on Umno Online’s Facebook page last night. The talk was moderated by Umno Supreme Council member Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, formerly the strategic communications director of Putrajaya’s propaganda unit, the Special Affairs Department (Jasa).
During the GE14 campaign, one of Pakatan Harapan’s strategies had been to hold mega ceramah in key battlegrounds, such Johor and Putrajaya, which were livestreamed on multiple Facebook channels. Viewership reached the millions, besides the huge turnout of thousands on site.
This method allowed PH a wide reach and maximum emotional effect to make up for the lack of resources and handouts that BN had been able to distribute to voters.
Annuar, who is also Ketereh MP, said being the opposition now gave BN certain advantages.
Annuar said BN will not focus on house-to-house campaigns to canvass for votes, as it had done in past elections, as this method was ineffective in semi-urban and urban areas like Sungai Kandis.
“Moreover, reaching out to people when they are at work gives us a very limited scope,” he added.
This is the first by-election following the general election on May 9. The seat fell vacant after assemblyman Shuhaimie Shafiei died on July 2.
In May, Shuhaimie polled 23,998 votes to win with a majority of 12,480. BN’s Kamaruzzaman Johari garnered 11,518 votes while PAS’ Yusof Abdullah got 7,573. PRM’s Hanafiah Husin mustered only 76 votes out of 50,800.
The Returning Officer for the Sungai Kandis by-election is Shah Alam mayor Ahmad Zaharin Mohd Saad. – July 22, 2018.
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