Despite its slight increase in garnering Chinese votes, the Chinese support for MCA in Kajang by-election is still “catastrophic” for a party that claims to represent the Chinese community, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said today.

“The increase is not alarming. We had a Malay candidate, who wears a tudung, and still we won the popular vote across all races,” Anwar pointed out.

“MCA needed to rely on Umno to campaign for them,” he added.

Anwar took pride in the fact that PKR won more than 50 percent of Malay support in the by-election which concluded yesterday, and saw his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail win the state seat.

However, he did refuse to shed light on any possible changes for the state menteri besar post, saying that discussions at the Selangor level need to be undertaken.

He said that in the last general election, PKR did not cross 50 percent of Malay support but has now well and truly surpassed the benchmark.

He also refused to read much in PKR’s reduced majority in the by-election.

“The turnout was low. Keep in mind that we actually increased our popular vote from 57 percent to 59.7 percent,” Anwar said.