The Kerdau state constituency, which faces a by-election in a week or so, has about 800 Chinese voters, 450 of whom live in a new village of that name just outside Kerdau town.

Obviously, the battle to woo the Chinese vote is going to be fought in Kerdau New Village.

Parties contesting the by-election, nomination for which is tomorrow, will be going all-out to resolve all the issues which the new villagers are bound to bring up.

The MCA has been tasked with the responsibility of convincing the new villagers to back the BN.

azlan "We are trying to solve the minor issues. The major ones will have to be discussed with the deputy prime minister or prime minister," said Pahang MCA deputy chairperson Hoh Khai Mun, who is a state executive councillor.

The minor issues are better roads, street lights and more aid for the Chinese school, SJK (C) Kerdau, while a major issue could be the request for a low-cost housing scheme in the constituency.

The MCA campaign in the by-election will be led by party deputy president and Pahang MCA chairperson Liow Tiong Lai.

He said the party would apply the Group 10 , or G-10, concept under which each of the 14 divisions of the party in Pahang would adopt 10 homes in the new village of about 100 households.

"We are going to adopt a personal-touch campaign," he said, adding that the party would explain in-depth the efforts to develop the country and its people and hoped that the voters would see the government in a better perspective.

Liow said most of the younger voters from the village were staying either in Temerloh or Mentakab, and the party was making the effort to contact every one of them.

"We don't expect any problem for them to come back to vote as the two towns are only about 20 to 30 kilometres away," he said.

The Kerdau state constituency is one of three in the parliamentary constituency of Kuala Krau, the other two being Jenderak and Jengka. Kuala Krau, Jenderak and Jengka are also BN seats.

'Pakatan to put up a good fight'

Kuala Krau MP Ismail Mohd Said said RM120,000 had been allocated to SJK (C) Kerdau to upgrade the facilities, including its computer lab.

He also said that RM950,000 had been allocated so far for various projects in the Kerdau constituency, including a community hall (RM300,000), an indoor basketball court (RM200,000) and a village security and development committee office (RM100,000) as well as for upgrading two main roads (RM300,000) and construction of a retaining wall for a water treatment plant in Taman Kerdau 2 (RM50,000).

"We have never lost the (Kerdau) seat, and we hope to maintain that record," he said.

In April 2000, a by-election was held for the seat, then known as Sanggang, after assemblyperson Abdullah Kia died of a stroke. Redzwan Harun retained the seat for the BN with a 1,963-vote majority.

Following a redelineation exercise in 2003, the Sanggang state constituency was split into Kerdau and Jengka.

Pahang DAP chairperson and Triang assemblyperson Leong Ngah Ngah admitted that it would be difficult to capture Kerdau, but said the party would help Pakatan partner PAS in the by-election campaign.

"It will be difficult to win but we can put up a good fight to reduce the BN majority," he said.

The BN had garnered a majority of 1,615 votes when it won the seat through Zaharuddin Abu Kassim in the general election in 2008, beating PAS which was represented by Hassanuddin Salim.

Zaharuddin's death on Feb 12 has necessitated the by-election in the constituency of 8,999 voters, 15 of them postal voters.

The BN has named a special assistant to the Pahang mentri besar and Kuala Krau Umno vice-chairperson Syed Ibrahim Syed Ahmad, 44, as its candidate for the by-election, polling for which is on March 6.

PAS is retaining Hassanuddin, 43, the party's Pahang information chief, as its candidate.

- Bernama