Will Perikatan Nasional make inroads into newfound Harapan-BN coalition strongholds in Selangor?

KUALA LUMPUR July 16 – The six state elections have now become a bigger deal and will test support for Anwar Ibrahim’s Madani Government. This elections will reflect how the public sees Anwar’s newfound Harapan-BN coalition and his administration’s performance in the eight months since he took office.

Total of 9,773,571 million voters will be eligible to cast their votes during the six state elections with Selangor recording the highest at 3,747,057.

Selangor is the richest, developed and most industrialised state. 56 seats in the Selangor state assembly are up for grabs. 39 of them are pre dominantely Malay seats.

Since assuming office last year, Anwar has announced multiple efforts to counter the ethno-religious narrative pushed by the opposition. The Prime Minister is scheduled to launch the Madani Economic narrative in August as a guide for a clearer direction of the country’s economy.

The six state elections is going to be a different political landscape. Perikatan Nasional will now have to face the new Harapan-Barisan Nasional coalition.

But the opposition, accuse the prime minister of, failing to solve the issue of rising living costs and fair salaries. The increase in prices has made daily budgeting and purchasing tougher.

The government should focus more into the living wage and ensure that it reflects the current standard of living.

In the meantime, the Harapan-BN coalition is betting on their supporters to remain loyal and vote for each other against a common enemy. Observers say this will be a crucial test for the unity government.

Whereas, the opposition PN coalition includes Bersatu and PAS openly stands for Malay Muslim interests.

GE 15 parliamentry election saw vote swing towards Perikatan Nasional in a phenomenon known as the “Green Wave” framing the election results “as a rising wave Islamisation” and a disastrous collapse in support for UMNO in all states in Peninsular Malaysia.

All of the coalitions including Harapan-Barisan Nasional-Perikatan Nasional are calling on their supporters and fence sitters to come out in droves to vote.

At the same time, we cannot assume that PN has control in most of the Malay support constituencies. The electoral landscape has become much more competitive and electoral outcomes will depend on many factors.

We can’t assume too that the Democratic Action Party (DAP) which is an important component of Harapan twill have an automatic stranglehold on the non-Malay vote.

DAP, a party most often associated with the Chinese, had tried before to field Malay candidates in GE 15 in what was perceived as an attempt to gain more non-Chinese support.

DAP has announced that it will defend all the 16 state seats it won in the 14th general election.

Selangor has 56 state seats. Prior to the dissolution of the state assembly on June 23, PH held 40 seats – PKR (19), DAP (15), Amanah (6) – BN (5), Bersatu (4), Parti Bangsa Malaysia (2), PAS, Pejuang and Warisan had one each and Independent (one).

The Batang Kali seat was declared vacant last February after its assemblyman failed to attend the state assembly sittings for more than six months.

Selangor PH chairman Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari had said earlier that BN would contest in more than 20 per cent of the 56 state seats and PH in the rest.

Meanwhile, after a disastrous outing in the recent 15th General Election MCA and MIC have decided to skip the upcoming state elections. In GE15, MCA only won two of the 44 parliamentary seats contested while MIC only secured one of the 10 seats contested.

Both the component parties of Barisan Nasional had said that they will continue to play as the component party to Barisan Nasional.

When it comes to electing stable state government with a handsome majority, supposedly Harapan-BN did not perform well in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang, will there be a collaboration with Perikatan Nasional to form a new coalition at the state level named “Perikatan Harapan”?

This is likely to be the country’s closest-fought state-elction. Let’s wait and see.

By M.Vivekananthan

The writer has served the government of Malaysia at various ministries, agencies for almost 30 years.