M Manogaran said PH did better in BN strongholds such as Jelai despite failing to wrest the federal seat.
“Although we have lost the by-election, there are positive points. We have made inroads into Orang Asli areas, especially Jelai, it was a very, very comfortable inroad. We did better there than GE14,” he told reporters at the DAP operations room in Brinchang.
“The sad part of this by-election is that BN used the race factor.
“I don’t blame the voters, this will only make us stronger, we will work harder to show the people that we are beyond race and religion. We are Malaysians and will go on to win Cameron Highlands in the future,” said Manogaran.
BN’s Ramli Mohd Nor today polled 12,038 votes, defeating Manogaran who got 8,800, a majority of 3,238 votes.
Two independent candidates, Sallehudin Ab Talib and Wong Seng Yee, obtained 314 and 276 votes respectively.
It was the second highest majority won by BN after 2004, when MIC’s S K Devamany trounced DAP’s J Apalasamy by a 6,260-vote majority.
Manogaran said despite a perception that PH had no support from the Orang Asli community, it did better in their areas.
“We performed better in the Orang Asli areas where we did badly in the last general election.
“Jelai was promising and interesting and the misconceptions (about PH) have been broken. They can be won over,” he added.
Manogaran also congratulated Ramli, saying he hoped the new MP would speak for all the people of Cameron Highlands.
Meanwhile, DAP’s Tanah Rata assemblyman Chiong Yoke Kong said voter turnout in Jelai increased to about 90% compared to 60% during the general election.
As such, he disagreed that low voter turnout could be a factor in PH’s defeat.
“The voters also did their best,” he said, adding that all four previous by-elections since the May 9 polls had recorded poorer turnouts.
Chiong too said BN’s victory was due to its campaign style of playing up racial sentiments.
“From day one they have been campaigning on race and religion,” he added.
PH’s campaign director Wong Kah Woh meanwhile said the results were not surprising.
“From day one, we were the underdogs in this by-election. It was neither easy nor a safe seat for PH.”
Wong said PH increased its share of popular votes in several Orang Asli areas, such as in Pos Sinderut where it got 38.5% of the votes from 24.5% in GE14.
In Pos Lanai, he said support for PH increased from 0.9% to 27.7%, from 9.9% to 28.6% in Pos Lenjang, from 8% to 34.65% in Pos Titom and from 8.9% to 27.9% in Pos Betau.
“For the nine posts, four in Tanah Rata and five in Jelai, we only got 479 votes in 2018, but now we got 1,226,” he said.