your say 'I personally wish to see that voters put the sympathy aside and send the strongest possible signal to Umno that they are becoming worse since the tsunami.'

Edmund Chong's widow to run for Batu Sapi

Anonymous: It is undeniably, based on feedback from Sandakan, the deceased, Edmund Chong, was a good MP of Batu Sapi, and for this reason, sympathy votes may spoilt the opposition's chance.

I personally wish to see that voters put this sympathy aside and send the strongest possible signal to Umno that they are becoming worse since tsunami 308, especially after their flip-flop on NEM, its handling of racist slurs by BTN (Biro Tatanegara) and the school principals, the 'boros' way in government spending as what we saw in 2011 Budget, etc.

It is a golden opportunity for Sabahans, like what Sarawakians did in the Sibu by-election, to tell the federal government that they have long been an 'anak-tirikan' Sabah.

Simon Lee: The late Edmund Chong was a good man but in the wrong party. We implore the good people and the real bumiputeras of Sabah to wake up and oppose the oppression and 'colonisation' of Sabah and Sarawak by Umno.

After 45 years of sacrifice, contributing billions of Sabah's oil revenue to the nation, Sabah only got a meagre 5 percent of their oil revenue and has now become the poorest state in the federation. Sabahans have lost their land, their pride, their dignity, their sovereignty and their autonomy with millions of illegal immigrants being brought in under the wicked ‘Project M'.

This resulted in untold damages and threats to the rights of the real bumiputeras in Sabah, who are still suffering in the longhouses without proper schools, roads, power and water and are living in poverty.

Inspektor Klueso: The joke is on the Sabahans again. Firstly, PBS is part of BN (more accurately Umno). Umno has raped and plundered Sabah since North Borneo (as Sabah was then known) joined Malaysia.

Ibrahim Ali, the leader of Perkasa (set up by Umno) showed complete disrespect to Edmund Chong during the one-minute silence in Parliament. Do we hear anyone from Sabah (PBS, Umno, etc) condemning him?

And here the grieving widow is going to be the banner carrier for the same people that so impudently gave her husband the middle finger.

Good Men: They are using Linda Tsen to shop for sympathy votes. They know other candidates will get hammered. Talk about being desperate. I feel sorry for her. There is no time to grieve and already she is pushed into this kind of role.

Equinox: Regardless of reformasi or Sabah for the Sabahans or whatever, Linda is a good woman - caring, kind and very hard working and focused. This is not scraping the barrel for someone to stand for BN. She is a good choice. An accomplished pianist, she may bring a bit of melody - figuratively speaking - to what has been a dreary dog-eat-dog sort of world.

I am no admirer of Umno and its BN gang, but I will be really hard put to not voting for this very decent lady.

Rolls-Royce: It looks like we just need a few capable leaders and the rest of the MPs can all be nincompoops. To be fair, I do not know Linda - maybe she is a woman of substance. But then, I am sure there are probably many more other women of substance in the country too.

Pakatan banks Batu Sapi hopes on Ansari Abdullah

RR: This is purely strategic and it is very important that Pakatan Rakyat adds another MP in the Parliament. SAPP will not get the support from other Pakatan MPs and that will be a real blow to Sabah because any policies meant for Sabah will need the votes in Parliament.

Parochialism will hinder political change and since we are all Malaysians, Sabah for Sabahan must remain a rhetoric. I am a Malaysian from Sabah, Sabah is already part of Malaysia and the only way Sabah can improve is to give collective support to Pakatan.

Wira: I suspect the Chinese will continue to vote Pakatan massively as they did in Sibu despite two other Chinese candidates from SAPP and PBS. I hope the PKR candidate will attract a majority of the Muslim votes and he shall have the election sealed.

KJ John: Are all calculations based still on politics of race?

Gua Musang Umno sec Aziz Yusof to run for Galas

Prof: An office manager (SPM holder) against a medical doctor? What a match! This is 2010, can't Umno get someone educated, or is it too scarcely available now?

While PAS has many intellectuals and professionals within their ranks, Umno is finding it difficult to get a degree holder to contest. The rakyat will surely know how to evaluate the two candidates and parties. All the best to both anyway.

Yobama: Kesedar is a quasi-govt body. As such, how come Abdul Aziz Yusof is holding a political post as well as a government job? Does it mean if you are an Umno supporter you can be a federal goverment officer at the same time?

Mustapa: Gov't officers will help us win by-election

Urban Malaysian: Government officers are supposed to stay neutral but here we have the BN confidently banking on their support to win a by-election.

Does the BN government give two hoots about the democratic process at all? This is one of the reasons why BN is beyond redemption and needs to be booted out to become the opposition so that they can learn how the real democratic process works.

Joe Friday: "We are treated in a special way - we were given land, so we must repay them as they are special as well."

Yes, Ku Li (Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah), the government is so corrupted that they have to offer such goodies to its rakyat and that too during by-elections. I'm sure you are not really a party to such schemes as I sense a dash of cynicism from your statement.

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