SERI SETIA — Chances for Pakatan Harapan (PH) to capture thousands of voters from the Desa Mentari apartments in the state constituency, here, appears to stable as residents expressed their satisfaction with their living conditions in the area for the past five years under the coalition.
Scoop spoke to several residents living in the area and found that they had no major complains other than the lack of parking, which they said is a “common problem for low-cost flats”.
“We have no issue here. We pay a reasonable price of RM45 per month for the maintenance fee for the elevator, and though the elevator has problems at times, they get it repaired immediately.
“We have shops here so it is convenient. The services here are good. No complains from us and all is good,” a resident who did not want to be named said.
Other residents also shared the same answer.
The residents here consist of about 60% Malay, 30% Indians, and 10% others mostly from lower-income families working across various sectors in Kuala Lumpur, which is about 13km away.
Most of the families were moved here from squatter settlements around the area in 2005 when the then government strived for a zero-squatter policy.
The seat was won by the late Dr Shaharuddin Badaruddin from PH-PKR during the last general election and was recaptured by PKR’s Halimey Abu Bakar during a by-election in 2018 with a 4,027 majority against PAS.
PH-BN’s PKR candidate this time, Fahmi Ngah is presenting his corporate background as his advantage, saying that his experience as the Smart Selangor Delivery Unit managing director and Selangor Economic Advisor Office as chief executive would help him bring reforms on a bigger scale.
He is up against three other candidates including Muda’s Dobby Chew, PAS’ Mohd Zubir Embong, and independent candidate Harindran Krishnan in the seat with over 80,000 voters.
Roughly 150 residents turned up at PH-BN organised ceramah held at Blocks 4, 5, and 6 last night.
Though the number may seem small, residents here claimed that Perikatan Nasional (PN) had also held a talk in the same area last week but only about 20 people showed up.
“This crowd is considered big. Most of the people here are strong supporters of (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim, so the candidates do not have a huge impact,” they said. – August 6, 2023.