A Perikatan Nasional target of winning 80% of the votes in the coming state elections may be realistic, because Pakatan Harapan chairman Anwar Ibrahim\u2019s image is being sullied by Umno, according to a political analyst.<\/p>\n
Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid of Universiti Sains Malaysia said although Anwar\u2019s personal reputation was improving among Malay voters, his image was still being dragged down by his coalition colleagues.<\/p>\n
Umno is a partner in Anwar\u2019s unity government through Barisan Nasional.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnwar has charisma and a track record of integrity, but the same can\u2019t be said of his colleagues in the unity government, especially those from Umno,\u201d Fauzi told FMT.<\/p>\n
Therefore, he said, the claim by PN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin that the coalition could win up to 80% of the state votes, especially from Malays, was realistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not unreasonable, but PN has to be wary of the government improving its standing, albeit very slowly. It is not quick enough to make an impact on the state elections, but the real battle is the next general election,\u201d Fauzi said.<\/p>\n
Muhyiddin had cited a PN study as showing that the coalition\u2019s partners \u2013 Bersatu, PAS and Gerakan \u2013 are ahead of their political rivals in terms of popularity and leadership.<\/p>\n
Political scientist James Chin of the University of Tasmania said Muhyiddin\u2019s confidence was well-placed, given PN\u2019s past performance in Kelantan and Terengganu.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 15th general election (in November 2022), they swept through Kelantan and Terengganu, basically the whole state, at the parliamentary level.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, if the coalition can maintain that target or maintain the vote, it shouldn\u2019t have any problems. (There is going to be a) landslide victory in Kelantan and Terengganu,\u201d Chin told FMT.<\/p>\n
However, he said, PN\u2019s chances in Kedah and Negri Sembilan were 50-50, adding that it was too early to tell, as both sides were still campaigning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Penang and Selangor, PN has a lot of catching up to do, due to (PH\u2019s) large majorities, I doubt very much PN can capture these states unless something happens during the campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Allah\u2019, Coldplay, and the Malay Proclamation<\/p>\n
Chin said the opposition would play up two big issues in the election campaign \u2013 the controversy over non-Muslims using the word \u201cAllah\u201d, and approval for staging the concert by British pop group Coldplay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese two issues are easily manipulated because all you have to do is to say that Islam is marginalised. You don\u2019t have to give any reasons, you just blame it on the government, and, of course, the government is PH and Umno, so it\u2019s something that is easily done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fauzi also said that Dr Mahathir Mohamad\u2019s Malay Proclamation would not have much of an impact on Anwar because the former prime minister\u2019s legitimacy among Malays has been dented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Perikatan Nasional target of winning 80% of the votes in the coming state elections may be realistic, because Pakatan Harapan chairman Anwar Ibrahim\u2019s image is being sullied by Umno, according to a political analyst. Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid of Universiti Sains Malaysia said although Anwar\u2019s personal reputation was improving among Malay voters, his image […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":{"id":93070,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":800,"height":500,"file":"2023\/05\/eb465bdd-muhyiddin-and-anwar.webp","filesize":57034,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":93069,"source_url":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/eb465bdd-muhyiddin-and-anwar.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93071,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93069\/revisions\/93071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}