DAP deputy chairman, Chiew Chin Sing said that while he respected the decision of the voters in the election, he saw that the rural voters' verdict was very clear when the party lost by 5,957 votes in areas under the Kemena state constituency as well as by 5,094 in Jepak constituency.

"The margin is too big. The majority of the Kemena and Jepak voters had spoken and rejected DAP and we have to accept their verdict. 

DAP will look closer into the Bintulu election result but at the first glimpse of it, it seems like we need to re-assess our strategy in the rural areas if we decided to stand again in the next Bintulu parliamentary election," he told reporters here on Tuesday.

Chiew stood as the DAP candidate and polled 8,958 votes, which apparently was way behind the votes obtained by Barisan Nasional's Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing who polled 20,225 votes to retain the Bintulu seat by a massive majority of 11,267 votes.

Asked whether he had been surprised by the big majority, he said: "Everybody should be surprised and political analysts should be interested to study about this."

"Like it or not, the people had voted and I have to respect the decision of the voters. The election is now over and it is now the time that the Barisan Nasional will expedite and implement their election promises."

The election had also seen DAP record was a little bit dented in the Kidurong constituency when they were outpolled by the Barisan Nasional on the rural side of the constituency eventhough Chiew had been actively going around the area for about eight months before the election.

Chiew did not rule out the participation of SNAP in the election as another factor that could have caused the votes to split and not favouring DAP.

SNAP fielded newcomer Dr Lau Hieng Kii to contest for the Bintulu seat but only managed to garner 2,583 votes.

On a positive note, he saw that the urban voters in the constituency here had shown their rejection to money politics. "Though money politics is everywhere and rampant, about half of the urban voters rejected money politics and I have to thank them greatly for their firm stand in fighting against money politics and corruption.

Needless to say, money politics is unlawful and most irresponsible. It defeats the purpose and meaning of an election and it brought about a culture where election is about money politics and not issues. Just think what will happen to our children and our future generations...we are corrupting them with wide open eyes," he added.
 

Chiew, who is also the Kidurong State Assemblyman, also chided the poor election process carried out by the Election Commission (EC) after receiving numerous complaints from the people who came to cast their votes on the polling day.

"Generally the machinery of the election is up and running but there are just too many breakdowns and unnecessary procedures. 

Voters name not found, voters checking too slow and some staff are not properly briefed to expedite their work. All these and many others are a waste of the taxpayers money," he added.