Straw poll: Azmin vs Amir in Gombak may come down to the wire

GE15 | If his rivals are to be believed, PN's Gombak candidate Azmin Ali is a goner in the urban constituency which overwhelmingly voted for him as PKR MP but saw him later leading a string of defections to topple the then Pakatan Harapan government.

But speaking to KiniTV in a straw poll, while some interviewees say what the incumbent parliamentarian did is an unforgivable betrayal to Gombak voters, others say it is inconsequential to their vote.

"What he did maybe a betrayal to the party but he didn't betray the rakyat, meaning his voters," trader Suhaimi Mustafa said.

According to him, this is because since leaving PKR, Azmin remained a constant fixture in Gombak and served the constituents the same way he did before the defection.

"In any case, in politics, there is always betrayal. To me, he had to leave PKR. If you're living under the same roof and constantly bickering with each other, isn't it better that you leave?" he asked.

Similarly, entrepreneur Sazali Ismail said his vote remains with Azmin because he often sees the three-term MP on the ground.

"I know he helped raise funds for the school here, so I pray that Azmin wins this election," he said.

For others, no matter which party Azmin chooses to be with, they would continue to back the former Selangor menteri besar. This is because the performance of the candidate on the ground is more important than the party.

"This issue of changing parties is not a problem; he is the best. It doesn't matter how many parties he joins, even if it is 10 different parties, he is the best," said Ramli Yassin, who is self-employed.

Dejected by Azmin’s defection

KiniTV spoke to 12 voters in the straw poll and of those, six said they would vote for Azmin while six others are casting their ballots for Pakatan Harapan candidate and Selangor MB Amirudin Shari.

According to many of those who say they would vote for Amirudin, they do so because they were left dejected by Azmin's defection.

They expressed how they had voted for him as a PKR representative to herald in a change of government but were shocked to see him overthrowing the elected government by leading the defections.

"He rose from the Reformasi era and in PKR, and we supported him... then he goes and did what he did. I honestly say I was sad and disappointed.

"So, this time I am eager to see the protege (Amirudin) defeat the mentor," said businessman Abdul Jalil.

Similarly, several people interviewed said they want to use their vote to punish Azmin for playing a major role in toppling the Harapan government.

Even those who admitted that Azmin had served the constituency well, said they would vote for Amirudin to return power to the Harapan coalition.

"A lot of people would still believe in Azmin had he stayed in Harapan," lamented a restaurant worker, who wanted to be known as Terry.

Assisted by PAS

Still, Azmin has the advantage in this fight in the form of PN partner, PAS. In 2018, PAS, which was contesting GE14 on its own, garnered 12 percent of the vote and those may now go to Azmin.

Gombak is made up of some 77 percent Malay voters, 11 percent Chinese, 11 percent Indian and two percent other ethnicities (Election Commission’s 2018 data).

Even though sentiments on the ground seem evenly split, campaigns by Harapan and BN to win voters over in Gombak is not as heated as expected.

In the first week of the campaign, Azmin was on a nationwide tour to support PN candidates in other states, while Amirudin was preoccupied with ensuring Selangor government agencies are ready for impending floods.

This may give room for BN's Megat Zulkarnain Omardin to try to regain some of the support the coalition lost in 2018.

BN won 18.7 percent of the vote in GE14 to come in second in the three-way tussle.

Earlier he told Malaysiakini, some traditional BN supporters who backed Azmin in 2018 were swayed by the presence of Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The longest-serving BN chairperson campaigned for Harapan in GE14.

With Mahathir now no longer a Harapan ally, Megat Zulkarnain hoped some of Azmin's 2018 voters would return to BN. But that may not be the case as the Mahathir-led Gerakan Tanah Air is fielding its own candidate - Aziz Jamaludin Mohd Tahir.

Also contesting is independent candidate Zulkifli Ahmad.

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