Muhyiddin ignites speculation

All indications are that the 13th general election would be held this month

PETALING JAYA: Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the 13th general election may be called in a few weeks’ time, ahead of the April 30 deadline for an automatic dissolution of Parliament.

For this to happen, Parliament has to be dissolved by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak within the first two weeks of this month.

However, the possibility of Najib dissolving Parliament this week looks slim. He would be leaving for Mecca starting April 3 to perform his “umrah”. He returns two days later, which would be on Friday.

Speculation is that he would dissolve Parliament either at the end of this week (Friday) or Monday, next week. This, political observers say, would give the Election Commission (EC) two to three days to announce nomination and polling dates of the next general election.

“Do not be surprised if nomination falls on the second weekend of this month [April 13 or 14] with polling a week later [April 20 or 21]. We might see eight days for campaigning… which is sufficient since the two sides have been campaigning for the last five years.

“It will be wrapped up so fast that many would not even know we have concluded the polls. The one week would just whiz past us,” said a Barisan Nasionl coalition party chief, who did not want to be named.

Observers say Najib has to conclude the election before April 26, the start of the Asean Summit Heads of Government meeting in Brunei.

Najib needs to attend the summit, not as a caretaker government head, but as the new Prime Minister of Malaysia with a good mandate from the people.

“He does not need to swear in. He would still be caretaker leader but the respect he would get would be as the new Prime Minister of Malaysia. If polls are concluded by April 21, then he has four to five days to take the oath. That is not a problem,” said the leader.

Over the next two days, Najib is expected to finalise the BN candidates’ list especially at the State Legislative Assembly level.

“He is not only finalising the state seats but also clinching deals on seat swaps and candidates for tough seats. He pushed the hard decisions to the end. It’s just another 20% left. Once this is complete, then he will hit the road,” said an Umno insider.

Ball at Najib’s feet

The announcement by Muhyiddin yesterday has set off a new round of speculations as to when the 13.3 million registered voters will go to the polls to pick a government.

“I do not think the prime minister will wait the full five years before dissolving Parliament. The election will be held within the next few weeks,” he said in his speech at the launching of the Federal Territory “Himpunan Barisan 1 Malaysia” gathering in Kuala Lumpur.

All 222 parliamentary constituencies would be up for grabs at the next general election, billed as the mother of all general elections.

On one side, the BN has attempted to push itself into the hearts and minds of voters, giving unprecedented handouts to the people with the hope that the ruling coalition would be returned to power.

The BN, under the leadership of Najib, is confident that it would retain its simple majority in Parliament. It must be noted that this would be Najib’s first general election as prime minister. He is trying hard to retain the two-thirds majority in Parliament.

At the last election in 2008, BN was led by then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The ruling coalition experienced its worst electoral performance, losing its long held two-thirds majority in Parliament and losing four state governments.

BN managed to get 140 seats of the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat compared to the opposition front, Pakatan Rakyat, which took 82 seats.

In any other country, winning 140 of the 222 seats, would have been regarded as a thumping victory but not in Malaysia, especially with a huge number of seats won by the BN at every election in the past.

In 2008, like a tsunami, Pakatan also managed to sweep four states – Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor – to add to its winning tally. Perak subsequently returned to the BN after three state assemblymen quit the opposition and became independent state assemblymen in support of the BN. Kelantan, a traditional opposition stronghold, stayed with PAS.

The devastating “defeat” forced Abdullah to quit, with Najib taking over.

The opposition this time around has upped the ante. The DAP over the weekend predicted that Pakatan will wrest control of Putrajaya, the federal administrative centre, and capture eight states in the forthcoming general election.

DAP national chairman Karpal Singh predicted that Pakatan was on the right track to capture the federal government with a slight majority.

Besides retaining its current four state governments, he said Pakatan should add Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Perlis and Perak to its list after the polls.

While politicians are busy with the general election and the rakyat are preparing to cast their ballots, the ball is now at Najib’s feet to dissolve Parliament and allow for the democratic process to flourish.