Sungai Siput - Others Vs. Samy Vellu

Sungai Siput (P62)

Sungai Siput is a town in the Kuala Kangsar district of Perak and stronghold constituency of MIC President and Works Minister, Samy Vellu. The racial make up of Singai Siput consist of 31.40% Malays, 41.40% Chinese, 22.50% Indian and 4.70% others.

MIC strongman Samy Vellu won the seat for 8 terms since 1974.

Challenging Samy Vellu for the 3rd time is Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) central committee member, Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj who is contesting under the Keadilan banner.

In the 1999 elections Samy Vellu defeated Dr Jeyakumar (who then stood under the DAP banner) by a 5,259 votes. In a 3 corneed fight, in 2004, Samy Vellu beat both Dr. Jeyakumar (this time of Keadilan) and Sanmugam Ponmugam Ponnan (of the DAP) by a 10,235-vote majority.

For this election Samy Vellu might have to worry not only of the opposition candidate but also about the Hindraf supporters and possible Subramaniam supporters campaigning against him in this constituency. The Chinese voters will be very much a determining factor here as well.

However, despite the possible swing of more Chinese and Indian votes to the opposition, Samy Vellu is still expected to win albeit with a much reduced majority. Samy Vellu is a survivor and is not easily defeated - he has stood the test of time and overcame much tougher challenges in his political life. If you read about his political career, you can't help but admire his resilience.

What will be interesting is whether he will still be appointed a cabinet minister after the elections and how many of his MIC candidates would have won and by what majority.

The spoiler is Nor Rizan Oon who is standing as an Independent candidate.

Prediction - Samy Vellu lives ! but might be a little wounded.