KUALA LUMPUR: As polling day nears this Saturday on Aug 12, the likelihood of Pakatan Harapan (PH) - Barisan Nasional (BN) winning in the six state elections seems to be greater this time.
This was stated by political analyst from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Dr Jamaie Hamil, who sees the coalition between PH-BN requiring only 75 per cent of the votes to win in the state elections.
"If 25 per cent are still protesting against Umno-BN, then fierce competition will occur between PH-BN and Perikatan Nasional (PN)," he told Berita Harian.
Therefore, he said, the votes for Umno-BN will determine the victory of the coalition parties together with PH in the six state elections.
Further commenting, he said that Penang still remains under PH, which has been its stronghold for more than a decade.
"The strength of PH is also in urban and semi-urban areas in Selangor, and PN needs to work hard to gain support in the majority Malay voter areas, as well as in Negri Sembilan," he said.
Jamaie mentioned that PN is seen to depend on protest votes against Umno-BN, as previously stated by the secretary-general of PN, Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.
Thus, he said, using the 'clean' (bribe and corruption free) claim to virtue as their (PN's) campaign fodder has failed to convince protest voters to vote against Umno-BN.
"This becomes the turning point where a smooth transition happens in favour of PH-BN," he said.