Nogeh proved them all wrong

Despite all the negative remarks made against him and his party (Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party) new comer Anthony Nogeh Gumbek won the Mas Gading seat, defeating three other contenders with 2,156 votes majority.

Nogeh garnered 8,265 votes against Independent candidate who is the former MP Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe 6,109 votes,  DAP’s Mordi Bimol, who got 5,293 votes while another former MP Patrick Anek Uren of State Reform Party (STAR) only received 462 votes and lost his deposit.

Based on the votes in polling districts, Nogeh performed well in areas under Opar state seat, but he lost many votes in Tasik Biru, especially in Singai areas and also some Jagoi-Bratak areas; namely Suba Buan, Suba Bandar, Stungkor, Stass and Sibuluh.

DAP won a lot of votes in Chinese areas, namely Tondong, Sebuku and Taiton, and also performed admirably in Kampung Stenggang. The votes in Kampung Stenggang swung in the eleven hours as it was earlier reported that the village is the opposition strong hold.

Of the three Bidayuh majority seats, Mas Gading was rated the hottest mainly due to heated rivalry between BN supporters and loyalists of Dr Tiki, who was said to still command respect from many community leaders.

About 79.1 per cent of the 25,821 registered voters in the constituency turned up to vote this time, compared to 67.37 per cent in 2008.

In the 2008 general election, Dr Tiki, who was then in BN, won by a majority of 4,301 votes against hisnearest challenger Dr Patau Rubis of SNAP.

Nogeh, when interviewed after the announcement of results, said the win showed people of Mas Gading still had faith in BN.

He thanked campaigners especially Opar assemblyman Ranum Mina of Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and members from all BN components who had made the victory possible.

He somewhat congratulated his three opponents for campaigning in a civilised manner and wished to tell them that he would always regard them as friends.

“Yes, I am relieved that I have won. It has been a long campaigning period of two weeks. There were hiccups along the way. But we have enjoyed it, I got to meet the rakyat and as I said, all the three other candidates were friendly and we shook hands as we bumped into each other,” he said.

To a question, he conceded there were times that his team feared losing due to stories in the blogosphere and the social media.

“If you read the blogs, they said we were trailing far behind. But we carried on, met up with the rakyat and let them as voters decide,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mordi, 28, looked gracious in defeat as he seemed surprised with the more than 5,000 votes he had garnered.

He told reporters that he would continue fighting for the interests of the people, saying he wanted to emulate Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen who is now a popular elected representative despite losing previous elections.

Asked if he would contest again in the next state election in the seat of Tasik Biru, he said: “Maybe, it depends on the party. I think I have done my best for Mas Gading.”

“I have worked hard for the past two years. In the last 15 days, I still moved around though not feeling well due to lack of sleep. It’s the people’s choice, they have spoken, I respect the decision and I congratulate the new MP (Nogeh),” he said.