YOURSAY 'Mahathir may be out of circulation within the next two years. After that, expect Umno to make mincemeat of Mukhriz.'

PAS retains Sg Limau with lower majority

Fernz: It's confirmed now that lacklustre Mukhriz Mahathir is a born loser. He lost the Umno Youth presidency, lost the Umno vice-presidency and now lost the Sg Limau state seat.

His father never had grassroots support either but managed to cling on to power by engineering no-contest resolutions in Umno. In 1987, Mahathir lost the Umno presidency but was saved by votes from 30 illegal branches.

The court should have discounted the illegal votes and handed the presidency to challenger Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Instead, the court declared the whole party unlawful. This allowed Mahathir to form Umno Baru and laugh all the way to the bank as he was returned unopposed.

Mahathir may be out of circulation within the next two years. After that, expect Umno to make mince meat of Mukhriz.

Ferdtan: Congratulation to Mohd Azam Samat of PAS for the win. A win is a win, even with a lower margin compared to PAS' victory in GE13.

Firstly, Sg Limau's local hero, the late Azizan Abdul Razak, had won five elections there in a row. So it was hard for Mohd Azam to equal or better the majority of his former mentor.

On top of that, it is not easy to beat BN in any by-election as BN has deep pockets - many millions would be spent and promised just to win an election, albeit a by-election.

With many federal cabinet ministers led by DPM Muhyiddin Yassin, backed by powerful party machineries concentrating in one area, a win by PAS is most commendable.

James1067: Finally the theory of the Chinese tsunami can be put to rest. The truth stares right in their face as even millions of ringgit were poured in with millions more promised for development, they were rejected.

Secondly, the control of Mahathir over Umno is slowly but surely eroding. It looks like the race and religious strategy is not that effective. Winning elections is not about throwing money but putting in order the problems facing the nation and cutting corruption.

Bluemountains: It is very strange that the by-election was chosen to be held on a working day. To my mind, Umno-BN lost because many of its supporters who are working outstation were unable to return home to vote. Had the strategy misfired?

FellowMalaysian: A big hand to PAS and Pakatan Rakyat for their superb effort and excellent show of comradeship in defeating BN.

I think PAS played their cards right this time around and credit must go to Kedah PAS chief Mahfuz Omar for his sagacity heading Pakatan's campaign and leading it to victory.

This win is all the more sweeter knowing it will come as a double-whammy to Mahathir as his son, Mukhriz, was just defeated in the recently-concluded Umno election.

PAS should take this win as a redemption against their tragic loss of Kedah to BN in GE13 and may this small but significant victory spur and motivate PAS to greater heights.

Awakened: The fact is that Mohd Azam is a newcomer who can never match the five-termed Azizan, not to mention the BN machinery and government resources.

The few hundred Chinese most likely voted for BN with the RM2.25 million pumped in by BN. This is a lot of money in view of the fact that Sg Limau is just a small town.

Now, what is BN going to do with this result? Will the DPM, Mukhriz and MCA chief Chua Soi Lek honour their promise?

Please don't say that because BN lost, the RM2.25 million is not going to be allocated even though the Chinese have apparently voted for BN.

Is BN going to punish the Malays in Sg Limau for not voting BN? Based on the past records, there will be more such by-elections before the next GE. It will be interesting to see how BN is going to tell the Chinese voters.

Swipenter: "Chinese tsunami" or not, all the Chinese schools especially SRJK (C) Aik Min can kiss the pledged RM2.25 million goodbye.

Ninety-three percent of the voters are Malay but the balance of 7% non-Malay voters would get the blame for Umno's loss. Come GE14, PAS-Pakatan Rakyat would wrest back Kedah from Umno-BN.

Learn from the past mistakes of the late MB and be fair to all. Remember "Inhuman religion is no religion, inhuman politics is foolish politics."

Hermit: The rural Malay folks are getting smarter. No amount of money could buy their votes.

Mahathir should have stayed away for it was merely a few weeks back that Umno members had dumped his son.

The old man's dream has shattered to pieces and soon Najib's new Umno line-up would know how best to dump the old man's dynasty.

My Opinion: I bet tomorrow the BN sore-losers will say, "See, we practise democracy. If Pakatan lose, they will say electoral fraud."

But we all know that if there is no electoral fraud or bribery, PAS would have won by even a bigger margin.

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