KUALA LUMPUR: Experts lauded Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional's (BN) decision to include mainly fresh faces and younger candidates in the upcoming states elections, saying the move will boost support and confidence of young voters toward the two coalitions.
However, they were also concerned that the move could backfire and would not go down well among some of the members, especially the 'warlords' and grassroots.
Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Dr Azmi Hassan noted that while disagreements among veteran members were expected, there was really no other choice for both PH and BN except to field younger candidates.
He said this was based on the results of the 15th General Election (GE15) which showed that young voters were the wildcards and kingmakers for all the contesting parties.
"Based on the GE15 statistics, younger voters were there and they made the choice of voting for Perikatan Nasional (PN). Hence, this is why PH-BN should focus on new and younger candidates.
"Of course, there will be disagreement from the veteran members as both PH and BN are considered old parties.
"However, besides attracting the interest of the Malay voters, this is where the concentration (on gaining the confidence of young voters) should be," he said when contacted by New Straits Times.
In GE15, it was reported that Malaysians, aged between 18 and 39, made up half or 50.5 per cent of the 21,173,638 registered voters.
Based on the statistics provided by the Election Commission, individuals aged between 18 and 20-year-old had 6.58 per cent of voters; those in the 21 to 29 age bracket comprise 21.79 per cent; and 22.1 per cent were voters aged between 30 and 39-years-old.
Following this, another political analyst, Dr Ainul Adzellie Hasnul said the decision to field younger candidates was to allow the 'new blood' to invigorate both coalitions.
"Voters prefer younger candidates as they have fresh ideas when in comes to delivering services.
"With this, the PH-BN pact will have an advantage over it, especially in facing the 'green wave' of Pas and PN as voters prefer younger candidates compared to seasoned ones."
Ainul also echoed Azmi's sentiment on possible disagreement among the veteran members.
"There will be some kind of disagreement among the grassroots members but they will eventually abide by the decision of the leadership to field young candidates."
Meanwhile, International Islamic University Malaysia Associate Professor of Political Science, Dr Syaza Shukri said this was the better strategy for both coalitions as both had always positioned themselves as being progressive.
"They (PH and BN) have always positioned themselves as being progressive, especially PH whereas BN had made similar promises since (the state election) in Johor.
"Fielding younger candidates is also part of the agenda to have their voters believe in their reform agenda.
"With this, they need to prove that they are serious about reforming their parties and coalitions to be beyond certain personalities (in attracting younger voters)."
Yesterday, BN chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that the coalition is expected to contest 45 per cent of the 245 state seats in the six state polls and the decision was made based on the seats won by PH and BN in GE15.
Zahid also said the PH-BN government is focused on fielding and selecting younger candidates to prove that the pact listens to the pulse of the young voters.
