Going against popular belief, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is confident that snap elections may not be called in the near future.

Lim, who is DAP national secretary-general, said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak would hesitate to call for snap polls after BN’s “biggest loss in history" in the Sarawak election on Saturday.

BN held on to NONE its two-thirds majority in the state assembly but lost eight seats to the opposition. Pakatan Rakyat took 15 seats, while an Independent candidate won one seat.

"Based on the results, BN may lose up to 10 or more parliamentary seats if a snap election is called now," a gleeful Lim told reporters at a press conference in Penang today.

"(In) the last (state) election in 2006, they merely lost one seat...the myth that Sarawak is BN's ‘fixed deposit’ has been shattered.”

Lim then praised the courage of Sarawakian voters who are seeking change, and urged all parties to respect their choice.

"That is democracy. For those who refuse to respect the choice of voters, that is dictatorship, not democracy...it is the rule of the Pharaoh," he quipped.

Lim noted that BN's popular vote has slipped by 8 percent in Sarawak, decribing this as "a very big swing by any standards".

BN captured 77 percent of the seats but had only 55 percent of the popular vote, he said. Pakatan won 23 percent of the seats but gained 45 percent of the popular vote.

"The one-person, one-vote does not apply, that is the democratic premise (on which elections are based)," he said.

"We should not look at this election in terms of seats won, but also in (terms of the) popular vote...that is where the real seat is. It is a small earthquake, not a big one in Sarawak.”

sarawak election kuching dap ceramah 160411 03 Although Chinese voters had backed the opposition, Lim stressed that DAP would not have won 12 seats without substantial support from non-Chinese voters.

 

In the 12 seats contested and won by the party, four had 50 percent or fewer Chinese voters.

"In some seats, we would not have been able to win with a comfortable majority without the support of Iban voters. In Kota Sentosa for instance, we won by about 5,000 votes where we had only won by 500 votes in the last round," he explained.

"However, we increased our majority ten-fold... Iban voters (made up) nearly 50 percent of the voters. In some areas with Iban-majority seats, our candidate won by nearly 7,000 votes..."

‘Urban-rural divide’

Lim further noted that Pakatan has obtained clear support from urban voters in Sarawak, regardless of race or religion.

However, he conceded that the opposition will have to work harder to make more inroads into rural areas.

The DAP lost in the Chinese-majority seat of Bawang Assam, he said, as it could not gain the support of rural Chinese voters.

"So, if you say th NONE at there is any divide, it is a urban-rural divide, not  a racial divide. There is a tendency for rural voters to generally support the ruling coalition regardless of race," he said.

"We can win in seats where there are fewer than 50 percent of Chinese voters ... in urban areas, where I think they are more aware and want change...you should come to Sarawak to see the yearning for change among urban voters."

On a related matter, Lim lashed out at Umno and Utusan Malaysia - which the party owns - for having suggested that the BN should abandon the Chinese in Sarawak as they have voted for DAP.

He questioned the Malay daily’s stance that the BN should punish voters “merely because they exercised their democratic right to choose their elected representatives”.