KUALA LUMPUR: The opposition should not count on big crowd at their 'ceramah' sessions to translate into votes in the coming 14th General Election (GE14).
In stating this, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak said the problem with the opposition was that "they count their chickens before they hatch and they equate crowds during ceramah with votes."
The minister cited several examples to prove his point in a blog posting at sskeruak.blogspot.my.
"In Sanggang in 2000, the opposition crowd was so huge and the traffic jam was miles long that then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad commented about it. However, the Pas candidate lost the by-election to the Umno candidate," he said.
The same, he said, happened in Indera Kayangan when 30,000 people turned up at the PKR ceramah and next door only 300 were at then menteri besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim's event.
"But the PKR candidate lost to MCA," he said, adding that more recently Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar were two more examples.
Salleh said that since 1990, the opposition had been told that crowds did not translate into votes but they never listened.
"Maybe once GE14 is over and the votes are counted they may begin to understand," he said. — BERNAMA