Malaysian Indian congress (MIC) suffer heavy losses in elections

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President Samy Vellu among losers

March 19, 2008

Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), headed by president Samy Vellu suffered heavy losses in the recent parliamentary elections in the country. He had nine members in the outgoing parliament but only one-third won the elections. Besides Minister of Works Vellu, other heavy weight party leaders who were defeated include deputy president G Palanivel, vice-president S Sothinathan, Youth chief S A Vigneswaran and Women's wing chief P Komala Devi. Samy Vellu has been party chief for about thirty years and has been elected nine times from the same constituency.

MIC also suffered heavy losses at state level, winning only six out of 19 seats in different states. The ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN) also suffered losses in the general elections. It lost its two-third majority but has succeeded in forming the government by getting simple majority. MIC has been a powerful party and has represented the Malaysian Indian community under the leadership of Samy Vellu. It still is presumed to be a good platform for the Indian community as it is an integral part of the ruling coalition.

Malaysian Indians are reported to have voted in favor of the opposition parties which have won 82 seats as compared to 19 in the outgoing parliament. One of the opposition parties, DAP is headed by a Malaysian Indian Karpal Singh who has Malay and Chinese as members, and has gained quite a few seats both in the country's parliamentas well as in the state legislatures. Hindraf attorney M. Manoharan who is detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), has won a state seat in Selangor on a DAP ticket.

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