A trio of PKR MPs has brushed off a survey by research analysts Invoke which claimed that Azmin Ali’s position as Gombak MP is relatively stable due to his high name recognition and support for parties in his coalition.
The survey was commissioned by the news portal Malay Mail and conducted between August and October last year.
It reported that with a 50 percent recognition rate among his constituents, Azmin is perceived as well known within the community, due to his former term as Selangor menteri besar and current standing as senior minister.
It was also reported that 55 percent of the respondents or voters in Gombak felt that the candidate matters more than the party when voting for an MP, while 24 percent said they were unsure or refused to provide an answer and 21 percent said they voted according to the party.
However, the key question of whether these factors would translate into a win for Azmin was not asked.
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"I don’t think it’s stable for Azmin because the question is whether people have heard of him.
"Normally MPs will get about 10-20 percent only, so Azmin's 50 percent is considered very high," said Tanjung Malim MP Chang Lih Kang.
"But heard of him or knowing him doesn’t mean people will support him. He is famous for the wrong reason," Chang quipped.
Azmin, who was formerly PKR deputy president, is largely perceived as the mastermind behind the Sheraton Move which led to the collapse of the elected Pakatan Harapan federal government last February.
Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil questioned whether the data collated was still valid.
The Invoke survey reported that in Gombak in September last year, 77 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with PN’s performance in the federal government.
"Based on the Malay Mail report, the commissioned Invoke survey was done between August and October 2020, and the Gombak survey may have taken place in September.
"It is important to note that September 2020 is before the Sabah state elections, and the administrative public health mishandling of returnees from that state polls that led to the third Covid-19 wave," said Fahmi.
This was also before the deeply unpopular Oct 23, 2020 push by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for a nation-wide emergency, as well as the more recent episodes of investment misses, including the major US-Indonesia submarine cables laid by Facebook which is partly affected by the cabotage policy (specifically the U-turn on submarine cable repairs), added the PKR information chief.
"These investment issues fall within the jurisdiction of Azmin’s ministry, and voters will not miss this fact.
"While voter sentiment will surely adjust itself to both local and national sentiment as we get closer to GE15, it is important to also recognise that Gombak has been a PKR stronghold since 2008, and many of the party ‘old fighters’ are there.
"Gombak PKR remains intact, and we look forward to facing off against Azmin there," said Fahmi, before adding cheekily - "as does Gombak Umno," in reference to the fractured relationship between Umno and Azmin's new party Bersatu.
Last year, Gombak Umno chief Megat Zulkarnain Omardin and Gombak PAS chief Salehuddin Mohd Nasir said that Azmin's actions seemed to be an attempt to sideline Muafakat Nasional in Selangor and that they did not want to work with him.
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Yet another PKR MP, Setiawangsa's Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad also expressed the view that Gombak will not be a walkover for Azmin.
"The PKR division chief for the area is Amirudin Shari, the Selangor menteri besar, whose state constituency of Sungai Tua is also in Gombak.
"This means it is not straightforward for Azmin.
"Furthermore, he definitely has name recognition, but whether that is in a bad or good context is another matter," he told Malaysiakini.
Azmin's survival in Gombak hinges on not just avoiding a three-cornered contest, but also on getting Umno and PAS to endorse him and give him their local election machinery, he added.
In 2018, Azmin polled 75,113 votes in Gombak while running for PKR/Pakatan Harapan against Umno/BN candidate Abdul Rahim Pandak Kamarudin (26,392) and PAS' Khairil Nizam Khirudin (17,537), giving him a massive 48,721 vote majority.
He also won the Bukit Antarabangsa state seat with more than 79 percent of the votes, trumping four candidates including his own brother Azwan.
Azmin won both seats on three consecutive occasions starting with GE12 in 2008 but that occurred prior to the seismic shift in the political landscape that he himself helped engineer. - Mkini
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