After a week of campaigning across the country in the run-up to the May 9 general election, Pakatan Harapan leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad is confident that the federal opposition pact will succeed in bringing down BN and capture Putrajaya.
“My reading is that we will win hands down…,” Mahathir told Malaysiakini at an interview in his office in Putrajaya yesterday.
But faced with Election Commission’s unexpected move to remove his image from Harapan’s billboards, Mahathir is wary of last-minute dirty tricks by BN in the final four days of the campaign before polling on Wednesday.
“To us, we are going to win, but we cannot foresee what Najib will do,” said Mahathir in reference to BN chief and caretaker prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Harapan leaders claimed that BN and the EC had taken unprecedented measures to stall their electoral campaign, including imposing new restrictions against holding ceramahs as well as the use of images of Mahathir in billboards or other publicity materials.
This was in addition to EC’s decision to set polling day on a Wednesday, which may see lower voter turnout given that it is in the middle of the week.
Mahathir, who has fought five general elections in his 22 years as prime minister, however said his confidence was derived from the outpouring of public support for Harapan as he crisscrossed the country in the past week.
The 92-year-old government-turned-opposition leader described the support as nothing short of “amazing”.
“I have gone through many, many elections. I have spoken at elections, I have campaigned, but I have never seen support like this,” said Mahathir, who is contesting the parliamentary seat of Langkawi in his home state of Kedah.
Mahathir claimed that a Harapan mega ceramah in Temerloh had drawn close to 20,000 people, while another event in Kuantan attracted nearly 40,000 people.
“I am the last speaker always, but they waited until the last speaker has spoken… You can’t see anything (from the stage) except heads of people,” he said.
Harapan leaders said the large turnout for their ceramahs pointed to signs of a “Malay tsunami” against Umno, although Najib and other BN leaders had rejected the notion and denied claims that BN was losing support among its hardcore voters.
Massive crowds
Mahathir, however, said even Harapan’s ceramah in Putrajaya, an Umno stronghold, on Thursday night had attracted over 10,000 people.
“We thought in Putrajaya – civil servants, they are scared because Najib threatened them. But last night, they came.
“There were at least, I think, 12,000 people although some said 25,000. Some people, who were observing from the hotel windows, and they saw the whole field was full of people.
“The response is unprecedented. In Penang, 100,000 people gathered there.
“Surely the press can see that, and yet the press tells me, no you’re going to lose,” he sighed.
Since April 22 when the official 11-day campaign kicked off, Harapan leaders from Bersatu, PKR and Amanah have taken the battle to BN in the Malay heartlands by holding smaller events, while Mahathir headlined the larger mega ceramah sessions which had attracted a racially-mixed crowd in the opposition’s more urban strongholds.
Meanwhile, in Malacca last night, former minister Rafidah Aziz made her first appearancein the Harapan campaign, after previously confining herself to posting scathing criticisms on her Facebook page.
Mahathir’s political comeback, this time as Harapan’s prime minister candidate, has also received backing from a number of other former senior Umno ministers, including Daim Zainuddin and Rais Yatim.
This has led to Umno expelling the trio from the party today.
MKINI
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