After a muted campaign, GE15 winner is anyone’s guess

 

Billed as the ‘the mother of all elections’, GE15 has not lived up to the hype.

PETALING JAYA: The political turmoil in the run-up to the Sheraton Move on Feb 21, 2020, and the events that transpired following that, would have most believing that the 15th general election would be one of the most exciting elections in the country’s history.

Pundits and observers billed it as “the mother of all elections”, but after 14 seemingly endless days of muted campaigning, it has become clear that GE15 has not lived up to the hype.

In some ways, it is not easy to understand how this could be the case.

On the one hand, there are three significant coalitions in Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional aiming to form the government, along with the East Malaysian kingmakers, Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah.

In West Malaysia, there is a fight for the prized Malay vote which has never been more fractured than now. At the same time, there is also an influx of new and young voters – some 5.8 million to be exact.

All this follows an unprecedented period of politicking in the country, which saw three prime ministers, the fall of two governments, a memorandum of understanding between Putrajaya and PH, and countless twists, turns, conspiracies, statutory declarations and leaked agreements.

There was even drama all around in the run-up to the polls, with BN and PH dropping big names. BN, in fact, dropped some ministers, several of whom decided to contest under PN or as independents.

It had all the ingredients of an election to be remembered, yet all the politicking appears to have taken its toll on the most important stakeholders, the voters, who go to the polls today.

This time around, there was minimal buzz about the elections. To say the campaigning was underwhelming would be an understatement.

Fiery exchanges were few and far between, not all parties held ceramahs, and even fewer engaged in debate.

Still, the biggest question remains to be answered, and this is where excitement in the elections will come from.

Where the winners of the Melaka, Sarawak and Johor state elections seemed apparent, it is not the case in this general election.

All sorts of surveys, published or leaked, have indicated that GE15 is anyone’s to win.

There is also no certainty on how the new voters, particularly the youths, will vote. It is worth noting that in the Johor and Melaka elections, BN won the youth vote.

The leading “wildcard” will be the voter turnout, and a high turnout, observers believe, will benefit PH.

In the end, a lot may change, but a lot may remain the same. The country could even be headed for a hung Parliament.

But one thing is for sure, with fears of challenging economic times next year, whoever wins GE15 will have little time to prepare and even less to celebrate. - FMT