The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition is fully prepared to counter the possible last-minute campaigning by DAP to help swing Chinese Malaysian voters in the Indera Kayangan by-election in favour of the opposition Keadilan candidate.

"DAP has used the same tactic in Lunas to swing the Chinese votes to help Keadilan's Saifuddin Nasution win that by-election," said Perlis Umno youth head Jamil Saad

About a year ago, at the Lunas by-election in Kedah - a parliamentary constituency with a similar racial composition - the BN had expected an easy victory.

However Chinese Malaysians, unhappy with a number of issues afflicting the community, voted against the government.

This resulted in Saifuddin scoring an unprecedented victory in the crucial by-election with a narrow 530 votes out of more than 20,000 votes cast.

According to political observers, some 60 percent of the Malay and Chinese electorates voted for the opposition Barisan Alternatif coalition - which Keadilan is a member - in Lunas.

"Chinese education has been a key issue in the opposition campaign (in Indera Kayangan). But the reaction among the Chinese voters so far does not indicate any change in their support for the BN," said Jamil.

"We are however monitoring the situation closely to counter any possible attempt by DAP to help in the campaign. As at today, I personally believe that BN will get a bigger majority this time," he said.

Straight fight

The Indera Kayangan seat, which has only 7,976 voters, has a racial mix of Chinese and Malays constituting about 47 per cent each.

Polling on Saturday will see a straight fight between BN's MCA candidate Oui Ah Lan, 58, and Keadilan's Khoo Yang Chong, 60.

The Perlis state seat fell vacant following the death of BN state assembly representative Khor Liang Tee last month.

Jamal told malaysiakini that the state BN has also received reports that a certain group of people, wearing BN vests, has been harassing the Chinese community in the Indera Kayangan constituency to create hatred against the government.

"We suspect that they are aligned to the opposition. The group is also reported to have, on several occasions, provoked BN workers. If we retaliate, these people will lodge police reports against our workers," he said.

In order to avoid unnecessary confrontation with the opposition, he said, BN workers have been told to ignore such provocation and go on with their campaigning.

A number of Keadilan campaign workers have filed police reports alleging that they were beaten by suspected BN supporters.

Yesterday, party Youth executive member Johari Yassin identified four BN workers who assaulted him on Sunday in a line-up at the Kangar police station.