Young voters turned off by opposition lies, party hopping, says Isham

 

Isham Jalil has welcomed criticisms of BN’s social media presence.

PETALING JAYA: Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil is confident that young voters will reject Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional at the coming general election.

Isham said youth had a poor view of PH for not delivering on promises in their 2018 manifesto, and were also unlikely to vote for PN as the coalition is made up of “party hoppers”.

“Based on our (Umno’s) observation, the youth don’t like liars. PH lied in their manifesto about National Higher Education Fund Corporation loans, tolls, petrol prices and jobs… This had a big effect on the youth,” Isham told FMT in an interview.

“The youth also don’t like party-hoppers. The anti-hopping law… Youth NGOs were the ones which initiated it. That’s why the youth do not like PN, because they are all party-hoppers.

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“But we (BN) can’t just depend on that (dislike towards PH and PN). We have to offer the youth something: there are a lot of things we can do for them.”

The coming general election will be the first since the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, with automatic voter registration in force. The changes bring 5.8 million new eligible voters to the rolls, a 40% increase.

Isham said his confidence that Umno could secure the youth vote stemmed from the party’s strong showing among young voters at recent state elections in Melaka and Johor.

He said Election Commission data showed that Barisan Nasional had claimed around 80% of the youth streams.

Isham also acknowledged the importance that social media would play in attracting voters in GE15, admitting that Umno would have a big advantage if jailed former prime minister Najib Razak could still contribute with his wildly popular social media posts.

Stating that social media is the new “battleground” in the war to win votes, he said this was especially considering the larger population of modern constituencies.

He said Umno ceramahs in the past would attract only a few hundred people at most. “Now with social media, our ceramahs can reach millions of people,” he said.

Touching on criticism by Najib’s former communications consultant that BN had a lack of presence on social media, Isham said he welcomed the feedback and was glad that Romen Bose had voiced his opinion before GE15.

“If we are too confident, then we wouldn’t push ourselves to the limit,” he said. “Let him critique us so we can work harder.” - FMT