Kelantan PAS banking on out-of-state voters to return home, says analyst

 

UTM’s Mazlan Ali believes that ‘fuel money’ for Kelantanese to return home and vote will be a key factor. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: A political analyst believes that “pocket money” for Kelantanese to return home and vote in the upcoming state election will be an important issue, seeing that PAS’ strength in a few seats can be at risk if out-of-state voters stay away from the polls.

Mazlan Ali from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said checks on election records since 2018 showed that PAS relies on the support of out-of-state voters to overcome the opposition in six to 10 constituencies.

He told FMT that voters are “keen” to return home to cast their ballots when there is “fuel money”.

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“When logistics becomes an issue, those who want to return home will think twice about it. If the out-of-state voters don’t come back, PAS will have problems,” he said.

Mazlan predicted that PAS can prevail against the opposition, but said the Barisan Nasional-Pakatan Harapan (BN-PH) alliance has the potential to narrow the gap in the state assembly.

He said BN has an opportunity to increase its number of seats following its cooperation with PH, particularly if PAS’ supporters living elsewhere do not return home.

However, Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Ahmad Atory Hussain said the lack of a strong Umno leader in Kelantan makes it difficult for BN-PH to win many seats.

“If you want to place your hope on Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, he has been defeated in Gua Musang. Asyraf Wajdi (Dusuki) has “run off” to Grik and was taken out, and other leaders are not that strong,” he said.

Atory believes that former Ketereh MP Annuar Musa can give added value to PAS in Kelantan, but that value is still uncertain.

PAS holds 37 of the 45 state assembly seats in Kelantan. The rest are held by BN.

Last year’s 15th general election saw Perikatan Nasional, comprising PAS and Bersatu, taking over all the federal seats in the state. - FMT