Hulu Selangor favours Zaid over Dr Halili

PKR will tonight announce their candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election and The Malaysian Insider’s strawpoll indicate locals prefer Datuk Zaid Ibrahim over local born neurosurgeon Datuk Dr Halili Rahmat.

About 60 per cent of the voters polled yesterday said that they would vote Zaid while 40 per cent said they will back anyone to replace MP Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad — whose death last month triggered the April 25 by-election.

The respondents were polled in the three state constituencies of Batang Kali, Kuala Kubu Bharu and Ulu Bernam within the constituency. Zaid was extremely popular in Ulu Bernam, polling 90 per cent of support while he obtained 60 per cent in Kuala Kubu Bharu.

A few explained their support for Zaid, the Kelantan-born lawyer who built his law firm into Malaysia’s largest partnership before he entered politics and was briefly made a minister.

“I choose him because of his political experience and he also understands the administration system as he was a minister in the prime minister’s department before joining PKR,” Ahmad Helmi Ali Bakri told The Malaysian Insider.

“With his experience and knowledge, I think he will be able to explain to the people about the current affairs so they will be able to understand issues such as the NEM (New Economic Model) and the APCO Worldwide issue,” the 49-year-old Ulu Bernam resident said.

Another voter from Ulu Bernam Siew Wei Lian said Zaid is the best name PKR can offer.

“I don’t really mind who the candidate is, as long as he is able to serve his voters fairly, so I hope whoever is chosen as PKR candidate will be able to serve fairly,” he said.

A Batang Kali restaurant owner Low Boon Chai, 44, said Zaid was the ideal candidate due to his popularity as both PKR and MIC have equal chances of winning the semi urban seat.

“Datuk Zaid is more suitable to represent PKR as he is more popular compared to Dr Halili.

“I know a lot about Zaid from the newspapers, there are a lot of stories about him recently compared to Dr Halili,” he said.

Most voters met know Zaid through media reports as he was formerly a minister in the prime minister’s department before joining PKR. He is also popular as he has been seen helping in PKR’s campaign in the constituency.

The voters also said they wanted a new face in the constituency as they claimed to be tired of MIC deputy president and four-term MP Datuk G. Palanivel for his alleged failure to deliver his election promises.

They are also demanding for economic change in the constituency and not just infrastructure development as many of them are self-employed and odd-job workers. The second national car project, Perodua, is also a major employer as its main plant is in the constituency.

PKR is said to be considering only Malay candidates as a majority of the voters are from that community. The Election Commission (EC) statistics reveal that out of the 64,500 voters, 34,020 are Malays, 16,964 Chinese and Indian, 12453.

In Election 2008, Zainal, the former Selangor deputy mentri besar, defeated Palanivel by a slim majority of 198 votes.

Zainal who joined PKR in 2005 obtained 23,177 votes while Palanivel received 22,979 votes. -MI