Analyst sees Gerakan heading for another election disaster

 

Gerakan president Dominic Lau said on Saturday that his party wanted to contest more constituencies at the next general election. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: An analyst foresees Gerakan repeating its dismal performance in 2018 at the next general election, potentially losing all parliamentary and state seats that it aims to contest.

Universiti Malaya’s Awang Azman Pawi said it would be difficult for Gerakan to win seats as Chinese voters who used to be its main base of support, now sided with Pakatan Harapan.

Another reason for the reluctance of Chinese voters to back Gerakan was that it is now a part of Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional coalition.

“At GE14, Gerakan did not win any of the state assembly and parliamentary seats it contested, and I expect this to be repeated if Gerakan can’t woo Chinese voters,” he said.

Awang Azman said Gerakan should have utilised Chinese voters’ dissatisfaction with Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation as prime minister last year to boost its support among the community, adding that the party could not just depend on Malay votes.

“Gerakan would have a future in Malaysia’s political scene if it uses a stronger strategy to draw Chinese voters, because they have a long history. As long as Gerakan continues depending on Malay votes, its growth will continue to be stifled.”

On Saturday, party president Dominic Lau announced that Gerakan wanted to contest in more constituencies at GE15. However, PN’s presidential council would have the final say on seat allocations for component parties.

In 2018, Gerakan lost all 22 parliamentary and 31 state seats that it contested, its worst performance ever at a general election.

Azmi Hassan, formerly of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said the only reason Gerakan was formidable in the past, particularly in Penang, was because it was a part of Barisan Nasional.

Under the current circumstances, Gerakan will need to rely heavily on PN’s help and support if it aims to contest more seats and perform well, he said.

But, he said it faced an uphill battle to do well in the next elections due to its waning influence and with PN looking weaker than BN. “It’s a very difficult task for Gerakan to even achieve 30% of what they achieved when they were in BN,” he told FMT. - FMT