Discard divisive politics.

Byline: Abdullah Ahmad

THE only race in which the majority of people pick the winner is an election. I have very comfortable expectations that voters in the Ketari by-election on Sunday will return Yum Ah Ha, the 50-year-old police officer turned lawyer, and he will become a Barisan politician after the votes are counted.

Besides, I think I know, having stood in three elections (won the first two easily and lost, as every Umno candidate in Kelantan did, in the 1990 general election due to the Pas-Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah machinations) that Yum is another man who should be convinced that history repeats itself.

Well, a candidate for re-election often does. In the case of Yum, a first- timer, he is seeking to complete the term of BN's Datuk K.K. Loke who died of cancer. That caused this special poll.

As for the 17,357 voters, perhaps 70 per cent of them will cast their votes, and I believe, as we said in NST's editorial yesterday, they will maintain status quo.

Ketari is a Chinese-majority seat (9,388 voters, 54.1 per cent) followed by Malays (40.2 per cent) and Indians and others …