IN a concise and sharp speech, Dr Mahathir Mohamad focused his final campaign message on three voting blocs that would be critical to a Pakatan Harapan (PH) victory today.

In doing so, the PH prime minister-designate attempted to spark a last-minute swing from women, youths and Malays before polling centres open.

He drilled down to two important voting blocs – youths and women – who make up half of this election’s 14.8 million voters.

He also appealed to the security forces to ensure that if PH does win enough parliamentary seats, they would be non-partisan and help ensure a smooth transition of power.

Analysts told Malaysia Decides that the aim was to spark a last-minute shift from voters, especially Malays to PH.

Experts and PH leaders themselves have stated that the coalition needs to generate a swing of at least 10% of the Malay vote in order to win 112 parliamentary seats.

Awang Azman Awang Pawi of Universiti Malaya pointed out that Dr Mahathir again appealed to Malay voters not to sell their futures for bribes.

Malays and bumiputera make up close to 60% of voters and Dr Mahathir has in the past accused BN of bribing voters with cash ahead of polling day.

Last night, he once again appealed to their conscience when he told them: “The bribes won’t last. It’s going to be used up soon. Please don’t sell out the country just for a few ringgit.”

The theme of vote-buying was repeated at the end of the speech where he appealed to Malays not to be easily bought over.

“Don’t belittle our community. Don’t be continuously fooled like this.”

To get the female vote, Dr Mahathir repeated PH’s pledge for greater gender equality in employment opportunities and salaries, and to end workplace discrimination.

He attempted to appeal to youths with promises of skills training, especially in information technology in order to help them get better-paying jobs.

In general, said Wong Chin Huat, the speech was a statement of PH’s intentions and an assurance that the coalition was a safe pair of hands.

“He reminded Malaysians about the need to not be controlled by money, to preserve national sovereignty and to respect each other’s cultural differences,” said Wong of the Penang Institute.

“It sounds like a partial and soft return to vision 2020. Nothing groundbreaking but this also reassured Malaysians that there won’t be abrupt changes when PH comes into power.”

The importance of Dr Mahathir’s final plea could be reflected in how on the same night, his BN rival Najib Razak dished out more goodies in a separate speech.

“Najib was pressured to steal the thunder from Dr Mahathir when he announced populist measures like tax exemption for those below 26 and longer toll exemption during Raya. It shows that Najib is really desperate,” said Wong.

Though general in nature compared to Najib’s speech, Awang Azman believes Dr Mahathir’s message could convince undecided voters.

“I believe those who listened to the speech and had not supported him yet, will do so at the last minute.” – May 9, 2018.