BARISAN Nasional is capable of continuing its momentum and reclaim the Semenyih state seat in tomorrow’s by-election, said Ilham Centre.

A survey by the pollster found that 64% of respondents said they preferred BN’s Zakaria Hanafi compared to only 34.4% for Pakatan Harapan’s Muhammad Aiman Zainali.

“Aiman lacks sufficient aura as a candidate for the government party. At 34.4% popularity, he is unable to convince voters to pick him,” Ilham executive director Azlan Zainal said in a statement today.

The poll was conducted among 378 Semenyih voters between February 26 and 28.

Voters were asked to rate the candidates based on their integrity, maturity and credibility, said Azlan.

He said the party machinery was unable to lift the popularity of its candidate.

“Maturity was an important yardstick for the voters,” said Azlan.

As for the Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul and independent Kuan Chee Heng, Azlan said most voters only had eyes on the two biggest parties in the race.

“Pakatan has to rely on GE14 turnout levels in order to retain this seat. If it cannot, BN can snatch Semenyih.”

Poor PH campaign 

PH’s lack of cohesiveness in its machinery and use of issues was overly defensive, said Azlan.

“The campaign schedule and coordination also did not portray PH as the government party.

“In Semenyih, PH did not have a centralised operations centre to decide the agenda and defend itself against its opponents. It mainly relied on Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin to mobilise the campaign.

“The other PH leaders also could not create any impact among voters. Interests in PH spike only temporarily during Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim’s ceramah,” said Azlan.

BN, in contrast, looked more organised and managed to dictate the social media narrative during this by-election, said Ilham.

With the use of race and religious rhetoric, BN capitalised on PH’s inability to fulfil its manifesto promises. 

Among those surveyed, 74.6% agreed that PH failed to fulfil its manifesto promises, while 58.7% said PH failed to defend Malay-Muslim rights since taking over at the federal level.

“Najib Razak’s appearances managed to help the BN campaign, with 56.6% agreeing to the ‘Bossku’ campaign,” said Azlan.

He said 73.3% of respondents were more attracted to national issues, compared to 26.7% for local matters. 

“Although, the government said it would replace toll with congestion rates and provide toll-free travel between 11pm to 5am, only 38.6% agreed with the initiative. The rest (61.4%) said they were unimpressed with the announcement.”

PH’s hope that not all PAS voters will vote for BN also looks bleak in Semenyih.

Although, PAS-Umno cooperation in Semenyih is not as cohesive as in Cameron Highlands, some 84% of PAS voters surveyed said they were willing to vote for BN tomorrow, said Azlan.

“Most of the PAS supporters said they will vote for BN due to Malay-Muslim issues,” said Azlan. – March 1, 2019. – March 1, 2019.