ALOR SETAR: A Kedah Umno divisional leader claims that his party is facing a near wipeout in the state assembly elections expected to take place soon.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Umno insider claimed that support from Umno’s own party members had dropped significantly after party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s purge of Umno warlords before the general election last November.
“We could see that 40% of our own Umno members no longer voted for us. If you look at Kuala Kedah for instance, we have around 21,000 members in that constituency. In the last election, Mashitah Ibrahim only received 9,000 votes from party members.
“We believe the other 12,000 votes went to Perikatan Nasional’s candidate, Ahmad Fakhruddin Fakhrurazi from PAS,” said the insider.
He claimed that the change in grassroot sentiment took place when Zahid decided to stand for re-election after preventing party warlords such as Shahidan Kassim, Annuar Musa and Tajuddin Abdul Rahman from contesting the general election.
The source said many grassroot members, particularly the younger generation, had been happy that the old guard could not contest. However, they became upset when Zahid announced his candidacy, seeing it as hypocrisy in view of his corruption charges.
Things got worse for Umno after Zahid’s second purge, in which leaders like Hishammuddin Hussein and Shahril Hamdan were suspended while Khairy Jamaluddin and Annuar Musa were given the boot.
He claimed that voter support in all Malay majority areas had switched to PN because of the machinations by Umno’s top brass.
Umno and Barisan Nasional were wiped out in Kedah at the 2022 general election, failing to win a single seat; Pakatan Harapan took only one constituency, Sungai Petani, out of the 15 seats contested.
At the previous elections in 2018, Umno won only two federal seats and three state seats in Kedah, in comparison to 18 seats for PH and 15 won by PAS.
Resistance to PN only in non-Malay areas
A senior PAS leader said PN could be expected to face tough fights only in areas with 35% to 40% non-Malay voters, particularly in Alor Setar and Sungai Petani.
“In the last election (in 2018), we knew that we would face problems if the Chinese community made up 20% of the voters. At that time, we lost because of the three-cornered fights between PAS, Bersatu and Umno.
“This time, we are united with Bersatu and won’t contest against one another. We are more than confident of taking down Umno and PH in straight fights,” he said.
Based on the 2018 electoral roll, PN will face close contests in Derga, Suka Menanti, Kota Darul Aman, Gurun, Bukit Selambau, Bakar Arang, Sidam, Lunas and Kulim – only nine constituencies out of the 36 state seats. - FMT
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