Instead, she told FMT, voters in the racially-mixed constituency supported her because PAS, which she represented, was a member of the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
She said most of those who voted for her were Chinese and Indians, who made up 54% of the 105,909 voters in the constituency.
Mariah, now a member of Amanah, won the seat for PAS in both the 2008 and 2013 general elections. In 2013, she fought three contenders and won with a 29,395-vote margin. She obtained 59,106 votes, while MIC’s S Murugesan got 29,711 and independent candidates P Uthayakumar and Azman Idrus got 2,364 and 280.
“One of the reasons for the big majority was that PAS was then with Pakatan Rakyat and the locals supported us for working with other opposition parties,” she said.
“PAS has around 5,000 to 6,000 members in the area. I don’t think it’s fair for it to claim that most of those votes came from its supporters.”
In August 2015, Mariah left PAS with more than 400 others from Kota Raja, Kapar and Klang to join Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB), a political organisation made up of former PAS members. GHB eventually became Parti Amanah Negara, now a member of Pakatan Harapan.
Mariah also said Pakatan Rakyat did not get Malay support in several areas within Kota Raja in 2013.
“Pakatan Rakyat won solidly with the support of non-Malay votes,” she said. “I am looking forward to GE14 to see whether PAS can get the votes.”
She rejected an allegation by Kota Raja PAS chairman Diah Baharun that she was out of touch with the electorate.
She said in the past, the village heads and their security and development committee members in Shah Alam and Klang would inform her of the issues on the ground.
“However, PAS activists are now trying to cut me off from the residents.
“I expected this to happen when I moved to Amanah,” she said.
She said that she had been going to the ground to speak to her constituents, but doing so without fanfare.
“I go quietly to meet the people,” she said. “I do not bring along an entourage with me like they in PAS would do.”