ALOR GAJAH: Having been on the move since 9am, Barisan Nasional incumbent for Machap Jaya Datuk Ngwe Hee Sem is showing no signs of slowing down as campaigning enters its final hours ahead of tomorrow’s polls.
With less than three hours before the campaign period ends, Ngwe is making a final push to reach as many constituents as possible.
He said his packed schedule was crucial to ensuring voters, including those who had returned from working elsewhere, were informed of his service record over the past five years.
“My schedule today is packed because I want to engage with as many voters as possible in Machap Jaya during these final hours before tonight’s campaign deadline.
“Tonight is very important for me to explain to voters, especially young people returning from places such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, what I have accomplished as their elected representative over the past five years,” he said.
Asked why constituents should retain him as their assemblyman, Ngwe cited his efforts to resolve a 30-year-old land dispute involving the former railway reserve in Melaka Pindah, which spans the Machap, Durian Tunggal, Rembia and Gadek state constituencies.
He also highlighted his efforts to safeguard the welfare and religious sensitivities of the Indian community by resolving two temple land issues in his constituency.
These included acquiring land within a private estate for a temple site to be gazetted. Indian voters make up 13.7 per cent of the electorate in Machap Jaya.
“As the assemblyman, I sought solutions through formal applications and land acquisition to secure proper temple land,” he said.
“In Melaka, we do not take the approach seen in Selangor, where hundreds of temples were declared illegal,” he added.
Ngwe said upgrading basic infrastructure in rural parts of Machap Jaya had remained a priority throughout his term. He cited the construction of new community halls and the installation of more than 100 solar-powered streetlights to improve visibility and safety at night.
He is defending the Machap Jaya seat in a three-cornered contest against Pakatan Harapan’s Datuk Ginie Lim Siew Lin and Bersama’s Prasanth Kumar Brakasam.
The semi-rural constituency has 16,030 registered voters across eight polling districts. Its electorate comprises 47 per cent Malays, 36 per cent Chinese, 13.7 per cent Indians and 3.3 per cent people from other ethnic groups.
Machap Jaya is one of only two seats in Melaka where male voters slightly outnumber female voters, accounting for 50.9 per cent and 49.1 per cent of the electorate respectively.