PKR logo gambit faltered on east coast in GE14, says Dr M

A recent survey by Merdeka Center had put Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his administration's approval rating at a respectable 62 percent and 58 percent respectively.

This however belies the widely-held estimate that the Pakatan Harapan coalition, led by Mahathir, had received approximately only 30 percent of the Malay vote during the May 9 polls.

But given the recent approval ratings, Mahathir has surmised that his party, Bersatu - which contested 52 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia and won 13 - could have done better if the party had been allowed to use its own logo.

Although Harapan's decision to adopt the logo of multi-ethnic party PKR as a common symbol reaped rewards on the west coast of the peninsula, its efficacy was limited in the east.

"The problem is we should have contested under the Harapan logo but we couldn't. We had to use PKR logo. That is a factor which sort of hid the presence of our party candidates.

"Our party is a Malay party and Malays are expected to vote for a Malay party in the rural areas. Those who cannot vote for Umno, which they rejected... they see PAS," he said.

PAS, said Mahathir, ultimately became the beneficiary because it was seen as a Malay-centric alternative to Umno.

"With the Malays in the east coast - very conservative people - they decided that they must vote for a Malay party. (Since) they cannot vote for Umno, they voted for PAS. 

"That is why PAS, which has never won so many seats (in the east coast) before, won this time simply because of the sentiment.

"But it was difficult for them to decide (on us) because they didn't know (Bersatu, a Malay party) was contesting under the PKR logo," he said. 

All Harapan parties had adopted the PKR logo during the May 9 elections, following the Registrar of Societies' decision to deregister Bersatu and prevent Harapan's registration as a formal coalition. Both issues have since been resolved.

Meanwhile, Mahathir disagreed with suggestions that Bersatu and Amanah were "overrepresented" in terms of ministerial appointments in relations to the breakdown of seats held by the four Harapan parties.

"My party (Bersatu) is not the biggest. The biggest is Keadilan (PKR). Next is DAP," said Mahathir.

Combined, PKR and DAP control 73.6 percent of the seats on the government bench, but were allocated only 50 percent of cabinet positions. 

However, some observers believe that this was done by design in order to ensure that cabinet composition was representative of Malaysia's ethnic make-up and regions.

For Mahathir, he said the grassroots still believed that his party was underrepresented in cabinet.

"But we don't mind. People can think that this party is underrepresented as long as we can work with the others," he said. - Mkini