Independent candidate faces pressure to quit KKB by-election

Win or lose, independent candidate Nyau Ke Xin says she intends to continue helping and serving the Kuala Kubu Baharu constituents.

KUALA KUBU BHARU: The independent candidate in the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election, Nyau Ke Xin, says unknown parties have attempted to pressure her into pulling out of the race.

Nyau said she received numerous phone calls from strangers asking her to withdraw her candidacy, two days after nominations on April 27.

A caller told her she would definitely lose and that she was merely wasting her time by staying in the race. She said she was accused of trying to split the votes.

“He told me not to waste my money. He also told me I won’t get any benefit from contesting in the by-election,” Nyau told FMT.

Another caller, a woman, told her to “sit at home” because she had no funds to campaign. “The caller said, ‘We are huge, so there is no way you can win’. She then asked me to think it through and hung up.”

Nyau said the callers were “very polite” and none of them had threatened her.

She said she was not put off by the calls and is determined to work harder during the campaign. “Win or lose, I will still serve and help the people of Kuala Kubu Baharu.”

She denied allegations that she was a proxy of a political party, insisting that her decision to contest was mainly to offer voters an alternative to both Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional.

“My intention is to provide an avenue for voters to express their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs,” she said.

Nyau will be up against Pang Sock Tao of PH, Khairul Azhari Saut of PN and Hafizah Zainuddin of Parti Rakyat Malaysia.

The seat fell vacant following the death of three-term DAP assemblyman Lee Kee Hiong on March 21 from cancer. She was re-elected last last August with a 4,119-vote majority over PN’s Henry Teoh, from Gerakan.

Polling takes place on May 11, with early voting on May 7.