The hike in this area has also been credited with preventing Barisan Nasional (BN) from gaining a stronger majority during Sunday’s vote, where they had aimed for a 6,000 vote win but managed just 1,725 in the end.

In Kuala Kubu Baru on Sunday, PKR candidate Datuk Zaid Ibrahim garnered 7,194 votes against eventual winner, P. Kalamanathan’s 5,164. This gave PR a 2,030 majority there, representing a nearly six-fold increase over the result in Election 2008.

In 2008, PR’s Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad pipped MIC’s Datuk G. Palanivel in Kuala Kubu Baru by 344 votes, after he managed 6,146 versus Palanivel’s 5,802

The area is one of three state constituencies involved in last week’s by-election, which was triggered by the death of Zainal last month.

The constituency is a Chinese majority area, with 18,040 or 45.1 per cent of the vote belonging to the race. The next largest racial groupings are the Malays (30 per cent), Indians (22 per cent) and Orang Asli (1.7 percent).

Among the districts here which favoured PR in the by-election were: Kampung Baru Cina; Kuala Kubu Baru town; Kampung Baru Rasa; Rasa town; Kampung Baru Batang Kali; Ladang Kerling; and Hulu Yam Lama.

Early analysis shows PR procured a clear increase in votes from the Chinese community, leading to question marks as to why the community has abandoned BN so clearly.

Following the results, Malay rights group Perkasa had also pushed for the BN federal government to impede or cancel aid and allocations to the Chinese community, saying that they were not grateful to BN’s approaches.

BN’s Chinese support had eroded further since Election 2008, slipping below 30 per cent on Sunday.

Nevertheless, it had managed to triumph in Batang Kali, which was dominated by PR two years ago.

This time around, Batang Kali’s voters leaned visibly towards the ruling coalition, with 11,820 votes for and 10,519 against them, ending with a 1,301-vote majority for BN.

In Election 2008, Zainal had wrested away the area from Palanivel with a 1,789 vote advantage, after he gained 11,407 votes to the latter’s 9,618.

Batang Kali is a Malay-majority locale, with 59 per cent of voters here hailing from the community. Indians (20 per cent) were the second largest, followed by the Chinese (19.7 per cent) and Orang Asli (1.1 per cent).

Over at Hulu Bernam, considered an Umno stronghold, little has changed and voting patterns continued to favour BN.

The Hulu Bernam area contains the Felda settlements, which include Kampung Sungai Dusun and Kampung Sungai Tengi Selatan. Votes from these areas went towards BN.

Zaid, however, was able to gain backing from the voters in the Kampung Baharu Kalumpang and Kampung Hulu Bernam districts, both of which were also under Hulu Bernam.

On Sunday, Kalamanathan secured 7,246 from this particular constituency, improving on Palanivel’s 6,855 in Election 2008.

PR, on the other hand, saw their support here recede by 31 votes, down from 5,470 two years ago.

The Malay community’s 17,434 voters contributed 66.7 per cent of the ballots in Hulu Bernam. The Chinese commanded 17 per cent of votes, with Indians and Orang Asli holding 15 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.