Voter revolt amy end DAP’s Penang dominance

 

THE DAP has ruled Penang for four terms now and has so far enjoyed a super majority in the state assembly, but reports are now indicating that it may have lost its glamour among ‘revolting’ voters.

It all started in 2008 when the DAP with the Pakatan Rakyat won a landslide victory in Penang. Rumours are that things are about to change in the state.

The Straits Times Singapore says an internal estimate shared with the paper by senior DAP figures projects that Pakatan Harapan (PH) is likely to lose its supermajority in Penang. This is something unexpected for many.

The report shows that PH may win only 23 seats out of 40 and this is deemed a worst-case scenario. The DAP may also lose its unbeaten record in some of the 19 wards it has dominated since 2008.

But DAP or PH is not set to face the same debacle they faced in Sabah in November 2025, where the DAP lost all the seats it contested and was reduced to nothing.

“We, of course, want to believe that Penang is different. What happened in Sabah is probably uniquely Sabah. Any party aligned with (the federal government) suffered great losses,” Straits Times quoted Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow as saying in an April interview.

Chow, who is the Padang assemblyman, also said Sabah PH was only part of the state government for less than three years, whereas in Penang, it has a nearly two-decade track record.

From a gross domestic product per capita of about 12% higher than the national average in 2010, the state has soared to the top of the charts in 2024 at 34% higher, or RM76,033 (S$24,530), the paper noted.

PH is said to be facing voter discontent at both the federal and state levels. Voters are apparently disappointed with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s federal administration.

This could impact Penang in the same way the coalition was trounced in Sabah. There are also local issues that have cropped up during Chow’s second term.

There are accusations that the PH-led Federal Government has failed to deliver on its 2022 election manifesto of stamping out corruption and instituting reforms to improve governance and democratic space.

And there is the “anti-federal sentiment” that comes from a dispute over revenue sharing from taxes collected. There is also a mining licence scandal in which the anti-graft authorities are accused of making politically motivated decisions.

Then there is the squabble between Chow and former DAP strongman Lim Guan Eng that has tarnished DAP’s shine in the island-state.

“I want to stress that many voters would not have supported the chief minister if they had known the manifesto for the Penang state polls in 2023 would allow the quit rent to be increased by several thousand times,” Lim said in a March 20 statement.

However, Chow has repeatedly explained that the hike was to make rates fairer and more uniform since they were last updated in 1994. —  Focus Malaysia