Majority Malaysian Indians voted for opposition - IANS

An estimated 69 per cent Indian settlers voted for the opposition in this month's general elections in Malaysia, severely restricting and denying the two-thirds majority to the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, a study said on Sunday.

The vote swing in favour of the opposition was as high as 42 per cent in the case of the Chinese, who constitute 33 per cent of the 28 million population.

Ten per cent of the local Malays, mainly in the cities, voted with the opposition.

Ethnic Indians, most of who came to Malaysia during the British era, number over 2.5 million. Majority of them are Tamil Hindus, but there are also large pockets of Punjabis and other north Indians besides other language groups from south India.

Ibrahim Suffian, director of programmes at the Merdeka Centre, an independent polling agency, said dissatisfaction was most evident among Indian voters.

"We heard so many stories of how Indian voters and youths volunteered to help the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) in many places throughout the country," he said.

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