I refer to Malaysiakini report PAS protests postal voting procedures .

Postal voting, especially in constituencies where army camps are located can be considered a trump card for incumbent members of Parliament or state assembly persons from the BN camp.

These postal votes can be considered ‘subsidies’ for BN candidates to win big as postal votes can be manipulated to be in favour of the ruling parties during election time.

Much has been said and written earlier about the irregularities of postal votes where the votes normally go to the ruling parties’ candidates. One also hears horror stories of postal votes being compromised in favour of the ruling parties as transparency and accountability of postal voting is not being practiced at army camps.

Thus, PAS’ protest to the Election Commission about the irregularities of postal voting procedures will fall on deaf ears as the archaic procedures of postal voting are favourable to BN’s rather than to their rivals.

Even our present prime minister won with a big majority in Pekan during the last general elections as a large army camp is based there.

As such With nearly 5,000 postal voters coming from the army camps at Port Dickson where army officers and their families are being brainwashed by their superiors to vote ‘wisely’, it will only help BN’s Isa Samad tremendously in winning more votes against his PAS rival.

All now, of a sudden, Port Dickson has been declared an ‘Army Town’ by our prime minister. Roads have been tarred in Bagan Pinang and ministers have been dropping in to promise voters a better future if their candidate wins big in the coming by-election.

All these activities to win votes occur during by-elections to win votes by any means possible. The death of an incumbent lawmaker is a boon for the local economy as much development funds will be spent there by the ruling parties to win votes.

PAS and their coalition partners may be disheartened in facing such an uphill battle to win the hearts and minds of the constituents with all the hurdles being thrown up against them. But it is better to lose a by-election with your head held up high rather than to win by dishonest ways.

The Bagan Pinang people have practically made up their minds on whom they want to vote for in the coming by-election. After suffering a losing streak for the past five by-elections, it will be a morale booster if Isa Samad wins this time around.

But it will be a hollow victory as this by-election is not a good referendum to see whether BN has turned the corner and is poised to win big when the next general elections are held.

The Malay votes is still spilt among the largely Malay-centric Umno and PAS while DAP and PKR still maintained a strong lead among the non-Malay voters compared to the other BN partners.

The acid test whether BN under the leadership of Najib Razak has won over the crowd will be if another by-election is held in a non-Malay majority area to see whether the Chinese and Indian voters have a change of hearts and are willing to support the ruling party again like before.

A clean and fair election being held under a non-partisan Election Commission is still a pipe dream in this country as the ruling parties use all the government machineries to frustrate their opposition rivals by any means possible.

Yes ,BN has been using underhanded tactics to win elections at all costs but the last general elections showed that even with all their might, they still lost big and lost their two-thirds majority in Parliament.

What make them so sure that they will not face the same predicament and be consigned to history when they face the voters in the future? Never underestimate the people’s intelligence to vote with their feet if they feel shortchanged by those ruling our nation.

Wake up, BN and hear the growing dissenting voices of the public who are still not satisfied with the snail’s pace of reforms that is happening today. Hear them if you don’t want to sit on the opposite side of the aisle after the next general elections are held.