The Teluk Kemang by-election today saw a twist in political trend when two BN politicians, Mustapha Manap, a former political secretary to Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Mohd. Isa Abdul Samad, and Yap Onn Ting, a former MCA state assemblyman for Lukut, have declared their support for Ruslan Kasim, the KeADILan candidate.

They told a press conference of "their concern over the rampant corruption of the Negri Sembilan state government" which they would reveal as they accompany Ruslan in the last three days of campaign against BN's candidate S. Sothinathan.

The switch goes against the grain of political activities as usually such party hopping is from opposition to the government component parties, as in the widely publicised departure of KeADILan Youth secretary Wan Indra Putra Ahmad for Umno on Tuesday.

The decisions to change party was not quite so sudden for Yap and Mustapha after all, according to KeADILan vice-President Tian Chua.

During today's press conference, both defectors said that their dissatisfaction with BN has been long-standing.

Yap, who is also former exco member, finally decided to switch because he felt that the best candidate in this by-election was Ruslan.

KeADILan vice-president Tian Chua said that Yap's decision was spurred by the belief that the BN had mishandled the Nipah outbreak issue.

"Yap felt BN had caused the deaths of many people through its ineffective action," Tian added.

In fact, Yap's younger brother was among the victims who succumbed to the Nipah virus.

Polling is on Saturday and BA campaigners have said there was hope of upsetting the incumbent BN hold on Teluk Kemang.

However, they conceded that it would be a tough fight since the seat was won by BN against a KeADILan opponent last November by a 9,942-vote majority.