'General election this month'

(Harakahdaily) - A political analyst has predicted that general election will be held this month.

Ooi Heng, writing in his column in news portal Merdeka Review, said prime minister Najib Razak would dissolve the parliament to make way for the polls as early as June.

“A lot of factors have been thrown in this wild guess. But I opine that regardless of the impact from the hike in power tariffs, Prime Minister Najib Razak will meet Yang di-Pertuan Agong to dissolve the 12th Parliament in the nearest time – as early as June this year, yes, as early as this month!” said Ooi Heng, executive director of the political research group Kajian Politik Untuk Perubahan.

As in past years, political observers and politicians have been offering their prediction of a date for the next general election, with many believing that it would be held before the month of Ramadan, which this year begins early August.

The recent moves by the Barisan Nasional government to increase power tariffs however got a section of analysts concluding that elections would be delayed amid public displeasure.

PAS's Kuala Selangor member of parliament Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad predicted that the election would be held in July, saying Najib would be satisfied with a simple majority.

“Najib is not going to get much of the ‘feel-good’ factor if he were to delay his timing for the 13th GE, only after the Budget 2012. The adverse impact of spiralling prices of daily goods and essential services is not going to be reversed by the many goodies packaged and handed out by Najib in the Budget 2012,” wrote Dzulkefly recently on Harakahdaily.

Earliest date so far

Ooi's prediction of a June election is the earliest date given todate.

He argued that it was too risky for BN to postpone the dissolution of the current parliamentary session, saying Najib had "nothing concrete to be shown."

“Although report is emerging one by one from the daily presses on the so-called 'KPI (Key Performance Index) achievement' on transformation plan, any real or meaningful development is nowhere to be seen," wrote Ooi, referring to the government's much trumpeted Government Transformation Programme.

Ooi further said that UMNO members were just interested to involve themselves in the so-called ‘transformation’ so that the government would award projects and contracts to them, bypassing the earlier announced New Economic Model (NEM) concept mooted by Najib.

“The response from UDA Holdings chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamad regarding the allegation on the Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) clearly shows desperation and impatience among some UMNO groups to boost their wealth before the 13th general election,” he added.

Jazlan recently questioned leaders from right-wing group Perkasa and UMNO accusing UDA Holdings of forsaking Bumiputera contractors in the development of the BBCC worth some RM6.7 billion.

“Among phrases used by Nur Jazlan like 'I am also an UMNO member, this is not the opposition who hits us, but our own UMNO members' and 'the Bumi agenda has its costs and UDA can no longer bear this cost anymore' ... all these clearly display the low confidence level among UMNO members in winning the 13th general election,” said Ooi.

Ooi compared Najib's dilemma to his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who launched a series of grand economic corridors projects during his tenure.