PH-BN eye big polls win ‘to ensure multiracial Penang govt’

 

Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow says all seats must be won in state polls to ensure multiracial government in place.

GEORGE TOWN: Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional will set out to win as many state assembly seats as possible to ensure Penang has a multiracial government, state PH leader Chow Kon Yeow said today.

Chow said the PH-BN election campaign’s selling point would be public support for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his ability to initiate change through good policies.

He hoped Putrajaya would introduce more good policies targeted at the six states that are about to have elections, such as new projects and approvals.

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“This is to give hope to the electorate that this government is able to ride over the challenges and crises. And to provide a hope for the country to go ahead, and move forward,” he said at a press conference here.

Chow, who is also Penang DAP chairman and chief minister, said a big victory by DAP alone without its other partners would result in a new state government being labelled as a non-Malay government, against an opposition dominated by Malay-Muslim members.

Such a situation was “something we don’t want to see in the country”, he said.

In the current state assembly, Pakatan Harapan holds 33 of the 40 seats, through DAP (19), PKR (12) and Amanah (2). Barisan Nasional holds 2 seats through Umno. The sole opposition member is from PAS, a member of Perikatan Nasional. Four seats have been declared vacant.

Chow said PH was for all, representing people of all communities and relgiions. The coalition and its partners “need to win all those seats as well”, he said, referring to the 15 Malay-majority state seats in Seberang Perai which had been deemed to be “unsafe” in face of Perikatan Nasional’s increased influence.

He had been asked if PH would accept conceding those seats, as the ruling coalition is expected to gain a comfortable overall victory at the elections.

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He was also asked if PH and Barisan Nasional’s performance at the parliamentary elections in November was a good enough indicator that these 15 unsafe seats could be easily won, as combined vote for the two parties was greater than the vote for PN.

Chow said Pakatan Harapan would bank on its strong showing in November, and on the good policies announced by Anwar’s unity government

He said “Anwar has made many good decisions” in the five months since the parliamentary elections and the latest opinion poll showed that two-thirds of the respondents felt the coalition was on the right track.

“The polls indicated the prime minister himself and PH to a lesser extent had been able to win more support” and he believed the “feel-good factor” about the country being on the right track would last the next two to three months until the state assembly elections. - FMT