Semenyih by-election: A test for PPBM

Semenyih state assemblyman Bakhtiar Mohd Nor unfortunately passed away due to heart attack on January 11. Subsequently, this called for the sixth by-election since GE-14, which is less than a year ago.

The nomination day was set on February 16 and the polling day will be on March 2. As of today, the candidates for the by-election have yet to be revealed. But it is most likely that PPBM will send its candidate to represent Pakatan Harapan coalition and UMNO for Barisan Nasional.

As we can see from the influencers list, PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin do the most talking on the by election. Meanwhile, UMNO acting deputy president and acting president Ismail Sabri and Mohamad Hasan also top the list.

The previous Cameron Highlands by-election, DAP was defeated but did not loss nor gain a seat. As PAS is not contesting and supporting Barisan Nasional for the by-election, it might help BN candidate to gather more votes than in GE-14. But, Pakatan Harapan will still have the upper-hand based on GE-14 result.

Besides, this by-election will most probably be a three-way battle as Gerakan announced their interest in participating.

Based on the population in Semenyih, 33.7% of them are Chinese. Therefore, the Chinese voters who support the opposition might go for Gerakan. Thus, it might split the votes for the oppositions.

Nevertheless, we need to wait for the revelation of the candidates as favourable candidate might sway the local voters.

Semenyih by-election will be PPBM first by-election since GE-14. Hence, it will be the first test for PPBM to prove its brand value which is crucial for the party expansion.