Indian community support stronger in GE14, Say Dr Subramaniam
KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Bernama) -- The support of the Indian community for MIC is expected to reach 65 per cent on average in the 14th general election (GE14) compared to GE13 based on a study by Jalinan Rakyat.
MIC President Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam said the study was based on feedback from more than 800,000 Indian voters nationwide through numerous programmes specially organised for the community.
"In GE13, only 48 to 55 per cent of Indians supported MIC. In this general election, the support level is higher compared to five years ago.
"However, the percentage of support varies by area, with some areas recording only 50 per cent support and others as high as 80 per cent. But on average, we are confident of getting 65 per cent support, which translates to about 1.1 million voters," he told reporters here today.
Earlier, Dr Subramaniam launched MIC's manifesto which encompassed four main thrusts and 22 pledges to boost the socio-economic status of the Indian community.
According to him, Indian voters were also the decision makers in some of the parliamentary and state constituencies.
He sees MIC's chances of recapturing the parliamentary and state assembly seats wrested by the opposition in the previous election as bright.
In GE13, MIC won only four of the nine parliamentary seats it contested, namely Cameron Highlands, Segamat, Tapah and Hulu Selangor and five out of 18 state seats.
On the likelihood of an Indian tsunami come GE14 based on the 65 per cent support for MIC, Dr Subramaniam said, "I would not classify it as an Indian tsunami but I would say that there is more support towards the MIC by the Indians".
The Indian community, he said, had seen and were looking at MIC's capability and ability to work together with government agencies in improving the socio-economic status of the people, particularly those in the low-income group (B40).
-- BERNAMA
