Minister says Sarawak poll results indicates voters don’t let hate get in the way of their votes

(Bernama) – The Sarawak state election has shown that voters no longer want to vote against any party based on hate, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak said today.

He said the voters want to see more tangible reasons such as development, harmony, peace, security and so on.

Barisan Nasional brought all these issues to the voters while the opposition merely played up the hate factor.

“And for that reason, the opposition paid a heavy price,” he said in his blog, sskeruak.blogspot.com.

Salleh said the launching of the anti-Najib campaign by those aligned to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Pakatan Harapan backfired badly on the opposition, as was expected.

“Let this be a lesson to the opposition that hate politics can sometimes be very counter-productive,” he said.

He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was personally down on the ground and was well-received by many voters in the places he visited.

“In a way, this proved the Prime Minister’s critics wrong regarding his popularity,” he said.

He added that the Adenan Satem (Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem) factor also played a critical role in swinging the voters.

“One could even probably interpret the Sarawak state election as a vote of confidence for the Chief Minister,” he said.

BN secured 72 seats out of the 82 at stake to exceed a two-thirds majority in the 11th state election.