Pakatan Rakyat had been successful in exploiting emotive issues to turn voters against Barisan Nasional in the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election, conceded Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Mukhriz Mahathir.

"We see that perhaps the the opposition had made some impact in terms of using very emotive issues to influence some voters against the ruling party," he said.

NONE Muhkriz ( right ) was commenting on the reason why BN had only managed to garner a 1,725-vote majority in the Hulu Selangor despite securing a lion's share of the votes for the constituency in past general elections before 2008.

Throughout the campaign, Pakatan had raised the deputy prime minister's 'Malay first ' comments and Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Noh Omar's speech urging Indians and Chinese to be 'grateful' for their citizenship.

PR supporters had also unfurled a gigantic banner of Teoh Beng Hock along the Batang Kali main road in the run up to polling day.

' Some Ch inese voted for BN'

Speaking at a press conference after the soft launch of the Malaysia International Trade Exhibition (Intrade) in Kuala Lumpur, Mukhriz admitted that the result of the by-election was not as favourable as the BN would have liked.

In a reference to the poor Chinese support for BN, Mukhriz said, "It is unfortunate that the results turned out that way. I'm happy that we won but... it would be interesting to see the details of the results and try to analyse it."

NONE However, he shot down Perkasa chairperson Ibrahim Ali's suggestion that campaign pledges made to the Chinese electorate should be witheld as they were not supportive of BN.

"That is if you lump everyone (Chinese voters) together, but I'm sure even if you look at the figures, there must have been some Chinese who voted for BN. So we can't just brush them off," said Mukhriz.

Commenting further on PR's analysis of the by-election results, Mukhriz chastised the opposition for not living up to its multi-racial stance.

"That is the irony of it, because the opposition tells us that our politics is based on racial lines but at the same time they are dissecting the results along racial lines," he said.

‘BN should distance itself from Perkasa'

In a statement today, MCA vice president Gan Ping Sieu attributed the deterioration of Chinese support for BN to the perceived close relation of the coalition with ultra-right organisations such as Perkasa and racial comments made by some BN leaders.

"If BN seeks to gain more backing from non-Malay voters, it should first of all practise self-distancing against any form of linkage with organisations such as Perkasa which vent racist spews," he said.

Gan also took a swipe at Ibrahim, saying that he would not survive an election in a non-Malay constituency with his constant racist remarks.

"I am certain that if Ibrahim Ali were to go and stand as a candidate in a non-Malay constituency, he will not even be able to get more than 10 percent of the votes casted," he said.