Other than the Internet, the Pakatan Rakyat is turning to the phones to woo voters working outstation to return and vote for the PKR candidate in the Bukit Selambau constituency.

The state constituency lacks employment opportunities and many of the voters registered here are now working in major cities such as Georgetown, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

From earlier feedback, Pakatan enjoys comfortable support from these group of voters compared to Barisan. With polling day being Tuesday, the challenge for Pakatan is to persuade these outstation voters to take a day off and come back to vote.

selambau pkr pc 040409 saifuddin nasution PKR election strategist, Saifuddin Nasution, said PKR managed to get touch with 80 percent of Bukit Selambau's voters, and as the remaining 20 percent worked outstation, the campaigners were unable to meet them face-to-face.

However, Saifuddin said they have successfully gathered about 4,000 phone numbers of these outstation voters and 25 volunteers will work around the clock to reach them.

“This method was used in Permatang Pauh before and it is effective...,” said Saifuddin.

“At least in the Permatang Pauh by-election, the Penang government declared the polling day as a state holiday and letters were sent to factories requesting voters to be given a holiday,” said Saifuddin.

Targeting 60 percent Chinese votes

According to Saifuddin's analysis, the turnout rate at Permatang Pauh between 8am to noon was below 40 percent and it was only after the factories were asked to release their workers that the number of voters increased.

bukit selambau ceramah umum sungai lalang 040409 manikumar “We are not the Election Commission (EC), so we have no powers to change the date. Therefore, we can only deliver these three messages to our voters... Vote for candidate No 4 (PKR's S Manikumar), vote early and keep your identification cards carefully,” said Saifuddin.

Previously, Kedah MB Azizan Abdul Razak had explained that the state had used up all its quota of holidays, and the government cannot declare April 7 as a state holiday.

Given that there are as many as 15 candidates battling for the state seat, PKR estimate its winning majority of votes may be slashed by more than 1,000.

According to a party source, PKR is likely to win 45 percent of the Malay votes, but will only get some 50 percent of the Indian votes.

“If they can win 60 percent Chinese votes, then they will win the election,” said the source.

Some PKR party leaders have expressed the need to increase the Chinese vote to 70 percent to guarantee a win.