PH can’t take PN lightly, says political analyst

 

Perikatan Nasional won 73 seats in the general election, becoming the second-largest bloc in the Dewan Rakyat. (File pic)

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan (PH) cannot afford to take Perikatan Nasional (PN) lightly despite holding the lion’s share of Dewan Rakyat seats, says the director of a political risk consultancy.

BowerGroupAsia’s (BGA) Adib Zalkapli said PH cannot consider many of its seats to be safe anymore as they won with less than 50% of votes.

“PH has a new opponent in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur,” Adib said at a forum on the general election.

“Sungai Buloh and Gombak used to be safe seats for PH, as the coalition previously won these seats having more than 50% of the votes cast. However, in GE15 they won with less than 50%.”

Adib, who is a director for government affairs and public policy at BGA, also said candidate selection will be especially crucial now.

“Candidate selection is also another issue. (Candidates with) ‘national profiles’ help, as you can see in Sungai Buloh, where (former health minister) Khairy Jamaluddin managed to narrow the margin.

“But there is also the issue of local machinery being just as important, as was the case in Titiwangsa,” he said.

Adib pointed out that Johari Ghani, who had lost the Titiwangsa seat in the 2018 general election (GE14), took a different approach in his campaign this time around, opting to engage in more dialogues with the youth in addition to his usual strategy.

As a result, Johari won the seat with a majority of 4,632 votes in a four-cornered contest. In GE14, Rina Harun of Bersatu won the seat on a PH ticket. - FMT