KUALA LUMPUR: Former Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan said the opposition's uninspiring leadership would potentially lead to an easy victory for the Pakatan Harapan led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the next general election, following the coalition defeat in the Mahkota by-election last Saturday.
He said currently the opposition leadership looked uninspiring without any policies or ideas to be offered to the voters, let alone to show its ability to attract its non-core voters, particularly the non-Malay.
"The leadership is not inspiring, there are no visible policies or ideas, and the ability to attract votes beyond the basics is lacking.
"I see that if this continues, PH-PMX (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) will win quite easily in the upcoming general election," Shahril said in the latest episode of the Keluar Sekejap podcast.
He added that despite PN votes shares in the seat remained around 21 per cent just like in the last Johor state election, it did not really explain the whole support for the opposition in the by-election.
The former Umno Youth vice-chief said a bigger Chinese voter turnout in the by-election would potentially lead to a much worse result for the coalition.
"Most Chinese voters who turn out will mostly go to Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional, and would not go to PN.
"The 21 per cent (PN vote shares) is not the real story; the real story is worse than 21 per cent," Shahril said.
Last Saturday, Barisan Nasional retained the Mahkota state seat in Johor after its candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah secured 27,995 votes, with a 20,648 majority to win the by-election.
PN's Mohamad Haizan Jaafar garnered 7,347 votes or 20.79 per cent votes from a total of 35,705 votes cast by the electorates.
A by-election was held following the death of assemblyman Datuk Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain on Aug 2.
Meanwhile, former Bangi member of parliament from DAP Ong Kian Ming said the PN loss last Saturday proved that the coalition led by Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin does not have a clear direction to win Johor despite the state being considered as his home state.
He said the former prime minister did not offer any initiative for PN to win the state which he believed would draw away the voters confidence to the party.
"Even though Johor is his (Muhyiddin) home state, there are no initiative, vision, or new narrative to win Johor.
"In such a situation, the public's confidence in Bersatu will decrease, and the confidence of the Johor people in PN will also diminish," Ong said.