PD POLLS | Political analyst Prof Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani said PAS' strategy to field an Air Force veteran will not pose a problem for Anwar Ibrahim in the Port Dickson by-election.
He said the PKR president-elect's appeal is strong, which is boosted by the prospect of him becoming the next prime minister.
"It does not matter who the other candidates are, (former) military or otherwise.
“Anwar's appeal is just too strong and I believe that military votes would go for Anwar more than anyone else,” he told Malaysiakini.
Azizuddin, who is the Universiti Utara Malaysia Research and Innovation Management Centre director, said previous elections have shown that fielding veteran servicemen to attract military votes is not always successful.
He noted that in the last general election, retired army officer Anuar Abdul Hamid contested the Tanjung Dawai state seat in Kedah on a PKR ticket, but failed to obtain military votes and was defeated by a PAS candidate.
"It (PAS' strategy) won't have much effect on Anwar.
“It is more appealing to vote for a person slated to be the prime minister, compared to an unpopular candidate or some captain who emerged out of nowhere,” he added.
Yesterday, PAS announced that it would be fielding retired lieutenant colonel Mohd Nazari Mokhtar for the Oct 13 by-election.
The parliamentary seat, which houses a massive army training centre, fell vacant earlier this month after PKR's Danyal Balagopal Abdullah stepped down to pave the way for Anwar to contest and return to Parliament.
In the 14th general election, Danyal, a retired Navy officer, won the seat with a majority of 17,710 votes against BN's Mogan Velayatham (18,515) and PAS' Mahfuz Roslan (6,594).
Meanwhile, Azizuddin said if Umno veteran and former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Isa Samad contested in the by-election, it would only serve to split the votes for the opposition.
He said while Isa might be able to attract a certain degree of support, especially among Umno veterans, the latter would not be able to defeat Anwar.
"The issue now is whether Anwar can secure a landslide victory or not.
“But if the opposition votes are split, the margin would probably be bigger for Anwar, especially if the by-election sees multiple-cornered fights," he added.
Apart from the trio, there is also an independent candidate Stevie Chan. - Mkini
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