By Giam Say Khoon

KUALA KUBU BARU (April 24, 2010): The Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election tomorrow will be one of the hardest battles for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as it stands on equal ground with its opponent Barisan Nasional (BN) in a bid to hold on to the seat. Neither side seems to have an edge.

The late Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) beat incumbent MIC deputy president Datuk G. Palanivel with only 198 votes to win the seat in the 2008 general election.

He passed away on March 25 paving way for tomorrow’s by-election.

A PR official said the opposition is worried that the tactics employed by BN would be effective in capturing the support of the 32,020 (52.7%) Malay votes such as the giving out of RM5 million to 100 former Felda settlers, as well as the exploitation of drinking and gambling allegations against PR candidate Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim.

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