NEW Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah, 62, of PKR, thought she would win the seat with about the same majority as her predecessor Hee Loy Sian in GE13, but was surprised she managed to nearly triple his majority.
She won the seat with 78,984 votes, obtaining a majority of 57,137 votes, compared to Hee's 19,920.
Of course, the number of voters in Petaling Jaya was increased to 140,920 from 79,558 following the redelineation exercise.
“Areas like Taman Medan and Kampung Lindungan consisted of 65% Malay population. It was not an easy area to win because of past issues related to race and religion," Maria said.
"The PAS candidate was a challenge, but we overcame it because the momentum was there.
"People just wanted a change of government, particularly in these two areas, and they would say things like ini kali lah (this time it is) when they see me,” said Maria, who revealed that she woke up this morning to thousands of texts on her mobile phone as well as missed calls from those who wanted to congratulate her.
The former Bersih 2.0 chair said a bean sprout seller in a morning market donated RM10 to her campaign on the eve of election day.
“The lady has to work hard and sell a lot of taugeh to make a RM10 profit, but she donated to me.
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