While DAP claims that a survey in Melaka shows that more people are supporting the opposition party, a Barisan Nasional (BN) leader said their survey states otherwise.

BN leader and Bukit Asahan state assemblyperson R Raghavan said the ruling front is confident of obtaining more than a two-third majority in the coming polls.

This prediction, he added, is based on a survey carried out by BN.

"The people are voting for BN again because of the progress it has brought to the state," he said, adding that those who supported the opposition in the previous polls were now favouring the BN

Raghavan's constituency is located just after Simpang Bekok at the Malacca-Johor border. It has a total of 12,490 voters of which 7,329 or 58 percent are Malay voters, the Chinese comprise 3,627 or 29 percent while the Indians and other races make-up the remainder.

In the 1999 election, Raghavan beat Keadilan candidate Zainon Jaafar with a 2,293 vote majority.

BN controls 21 of the 25 state seats and four of the five parliamentary seats in Melaka. The rest are held by DAP. Under the delineation exercise last year, Melaka now has six parliament and 28 state seats

BN projects

According to Raghavan, the ruling front has implemented many projects in his constituency, most of which are in aid of the poor and rural folks.

In the last five years, RM480,000 was spent on building houses for the hardcore poor which are given to them for free.

Besides this, three education institutions were set up for them: The RM58 million Institut Latihan Perindustrian to ensure that rural folks obtain a decent education regardless of age, the RM12 million Kolej Komuniti which offers IT courses, computer repair and domestic science subjects such as sewing and cooking while another RM2.7 million was spent on setting up a boarding school - Sekolah Berasmara Integrasi.

Raghavan also stressed that the middle to lower-income group are also not forgotten as a total of 1,951 low-cost houses were built in his constituency.

He said RM200,000 was also given to the Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) for the purpose of rural development.

He added that efforts are also made to upgrade the roads in his constituency where a total of RM1,464,414 was spent from 2002 to last year for that purpose.

With the election just two weeks away, Raghavan said the party had set up committees at the constituency and village levels to look into the preparation.

Representatives from their operations centre in Nyalas have been visiting residential areas and villages to obtain feedback on BN's performance.

Asked on the response, Raghavan said the "feedback was positive and BN was confident of winning a two-third majority".

Support for DAP

However, the state DAP leader Sim Tong Him claimed that a recent survey by his party indicated that the party can retain and win new state seats.

Sim, who is also the DAP Bandar Hilir Assemblyperson , said that he had to alter his previous perception as a result of the survey which revealed that more people in the state now supported the opposition party.

He said the people in BN constituencies have observed the things DAP had done over the years.

Based on this, he stressed that the party was confident of taking the Duyong and Ayeh Keroh seats held by the ruling front besides winning the two new seats Kelebang and Bukit Baru.

DAP was also confident of defending the Bandar Hilir, Durian Daun, Bachang and Kesidang state seats. The party also controlled one parliamentary seat - Kota Melaka.

Not happy

Elaborating, Sim said the people in Duyong and Ayer Keroh were not happy with the performance of their BN representatives since the 1999 election.

"That is why BN's Gan Boon Leong will not be contesting in Duyong this time around as the people there said they were not happy with his performance. His son Tian Loo will be contesting instead," he added.

In the last election, Gan beat DAP candidate Aw Boon Huan by a mere 45 votes. The former garnered 5,074 votes while the latter polled 5,029.

"BN only beat us by a small number of votes in the last election and we are confident of winning over these voters this time around as we have demonstrated our competency," said Sim.

On other hand, he said Ayer Keroh was a Chinese-majority area and revealed that he had requested to be fielded as a candidate there.

Asked why he eyed this seat as the previous DAP candidate lost to BN by nearly 2,000 votes, Sim said he had been living there since 1976 and was familiar with the area.

"The people there know me and they know of my capabilities and the party's as well," he added.

On their campaign, Sim said the party was aggressively promoting its slogan 'DAP insists on being Opposition'.

"Our duty is to keep the ruling party in check and the Melaka people have seen the disadvantages of not having any opposition in a state.

"Besides that, we are also highlighting all of BN's failures in the last five years and will bring it to the attention of the people," he added.

Asked if there were any other strategies, he replied: "We like to keep it simple. Simple strategies are the best."