BN Swept From Kelana Jaya

The D-Day is today.

Since I am a voter in Kelana Jaya (Parliament) and Subang Jaya (state) seats, I paid more attention on the candidates in these areas. Since nomination day, it can be clearly observed the BN is very confident of retaining the Kelana Jaya parliament seat and the two state seats within it, Subang Jaya and Seri Setia.

Even though Lee Hwa Beng replaces first-term MP Loh Seng Kok, there were no rumbles from local MCA members. Lee, the MCA Kelana Jaya Division chairman has a strong grip on the division’s 5,000 members. While Loh Gwo Burne has PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim campaigning for him for the parliament seat, Lee depended mostly on his well-oiled local BN/MCA machinery and his service as the three-term Subang Jaya assemblyman. No upset is expected from PKR Loh or independent candidate Billi Lim but it will be a gigantic task for BN Lee to replicate the wide margin win of 21571 as his predecessor did in 2004. Basing on the current sentiment and disgruntlement of the Indian (17.9%) and Chinese (38.7%) voters, the winning margin expected to be less than 4,000.

Update: Lee Hwa Beng was defeated by newbie Loh Gwo Burne by 5,031 majority. Turnout was 73.60%. There was a shift of more than 26,000 votes to the opposition compared to last election in 2004. The Malay voters unexpectedly tilted in favour of Loh.

As for the Subang Jaya seat which is a showdown between two women newbie, Ong Chong Swen of BN against Hannah Yeoh of DAP. This is clearly a contest between two different generations and experience. Businesswoman Ong age 57 is married with a housing developer husband while Yeoh an event manager is 29 and recently married. It’s a battle between an experience community activist and an idealistic youth full with energy. Voting preference will be influence by age. Yeoh is expected to command a big chunk of the youth voters in Subang Jaya gauging from responses she receives during her walk-about and visiting. Ong looks a bit of jaded but her election machinery will be able to secure support from traditional supporters of Lee Hwa Beng. BN will have the upper hand but the margin expected to be less than 1,000.

Update : Hannah shocked Ong Chong Swen with 13,851 majority. It was the second largest majority win in a Selangor state seat.

Seripah Noli of BN most probably will retain the Seri Setia state. The challenger is PKR’s Nik Nazmi 26, who is private secretary to Anwar Ibrahim. Even so, BN are expected to lose substantial Indian votes from this seat. Indian consists 28.3% of the total voters.

Update : Seripah Noli lost to Nik Nazmi with a majority of 2,863. The unexpected swing of Malay voters causes Seripah's downfall.

For Kelana Jayans, there is a possibility the BN candidate will be made at least a Parliamentary Secretary when he wins. This is further enhanced by high possibility that MCA might lose PJ Utara (Chew Mei Fun) and Klang, which are contested by Selangor MCA chairman C’hng Toh Eng. The previous Klang MP Tan Yee Kew was a Parliamentary Secretary.

Update : The west coast domino effect also falls on Ch'ng Toh Eng and Chew Mei Fun. Both were defeated by their opponents with huge majority.