Admitting that the three-cornered fight in Sungai Besar will benefit BN, Selangor DAP chief Tony Pua said he is confident of reducing BN’s share of popular votes to less than 50 percent.

This, he said, was to prove that the BN has lost majority support in the semi-urban seats, which have been the ruling party’s fortress in the past.

“I think the three-cornered fight will definitely benefit BN. But it is an unfortunate necessity, because we cannot allow PAS to contest without representation from Pakatan Harapan.

“We are confident that BN will get less than 50 percent of the vote.”

“(This is an) important benchmark of BN for not having 50 percent of the vote, that means they no longer have popular support even in semi-urban and semi-rural seats.

“Whether we win or not is immaterial. It’s only one parliamentary seat and doesn’t change the government. But it's important that BN doesn’t have 50 percent of the support,” Pua, the PJ Utara MP (photo), told a press conference in Damansara this afternoon.

However, he said, DAP would fully back Amanah to wrest the seat in the face of BN and PAS, stating that he would ‘camp’ in Sungai Besar from nomination day till voting day.

Biggest lesson

Asked about the possibility of winning the Sungai Besar seat, Pua admitted it would be hard for Pakatan Harapan to win, but they would try their best.

“This doesn't mean it's mission impossible. The UCSI survey shows (BN only has) a 44 percent (popularity). We believe it's even lower than that.

“It is because many voters don't dare to voice out their hope for BN to be beaten… they might drop support for Umno and swing to Pakatan Harapan,” he said.

Pua also said that the main concern of DAP in Sungai Besar was not to repeat its failure in Teluk Intan, which was not calling upon the outstation voters to return and vote.

“(Our) biggest lesson (from Teluk Intan) is to do everything we can to ensure the outstation voters of Sungai Besar return to vote on June 18.

“We will take the necessary steps to identify what is crucial for them to vote, celebrate Father's Day on June 18 before returning to work on June 19,” he added.

Big gap

Meanwhile, Pua also expressed his disappointment with the government for not providing full scholarships for students who will go overseas, as they had been promised.

Nine students, he said, were promised full scholarships on the condition that they maintained a CGPA of 3.75 during the programme and received undergraduate admission to any of the top universities as listed by the Public Service Department (JPA).

“There is a big gap between top overseas universities and those in the local universities.

“They need to be given the opportunity to study in the top overseas universities, because this will benefit the people of Malaysia,” he said

One of the students, Justine Jason Barnabas, said: “We really hope that the corporate sector can at least give us a chance. Let us apply for certain scholarships, interview us and let us present our case.”