Pakatan can win multi-cornered fights at GE14, says Muhyiddin

Chan Kok Leong Chan Kok Leong Updated 8 years ago · Published on 9 Oct 2017 7:00AM · 2 Comments

Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin says in Klang the opposition accepts the fact that the next elections will not be a straight fight. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Kamal Ariffin, October 9, 2017.

HISTORY may be against Pakatan Harapan but the new coalition is optimistic that it can prevail should it face multi-cornered fights at the next elections.

PH deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin said the coalition has accepted the fact that there will be no straight fights in the 14th general election (GE14) but was ready to face it.

“We have already accepted the fact that GE14 will not be a straight fight. Secondly, we know that we have to fight, irrespective of whether it’s three-cornered or not. And lastly, we have the strategy to deal with it,” said the Bersatu president after the last “Save Malaysia, End Kleptocracy” ceramah in Klang, Selangor, last night.

Muhyiddin, who is also Bersatu president, was commenting on the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research forum “Multi-cornered contest: boon or bane?” on Saturday.

In the forum, academics said historically, Barisan Nasional benefited from multi-cornered fights and that PAS and PKR stood to lose the most in the next elections if they are caught in such a situation.

They also said the opposition would find it difficult to wrest Putrajaya in the event of multi-cornered fights. The forum came on the back of news that PAS has vowed to create three-cornered fights following its withdrawal from the opposition pact.

“The findings are something that we have to take note of but we have to go down. What think-tanks do is sampling but we take headcounts and look at the constituencies on the basis of the voters there. We do not generalise,” said Muhyiddin, who used to be the elections director in BN.

To add insult to injury, Muhyiddin said, it is PAS which stands to be wiped out in the next elections if it works with Umno.

“I think PAS will be routed in the next elections. And if PAS were to work with Umno, it will be better for us. There are certain points that we can tackle here.”

Although PAS has repeatedly denied that it will work with BN in GE14, Umno information chief Annuar Musa again extended the invitation to the Islamist party in Bachok yesterday.

Annuar said that Umno is willing to consider cooperation with PAS if the party is willing to come to the negotiating table. – October 9, 2017.

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Comments

  • The math is simply this - its literally impossible to get below 10% of the Malay vote that PAS most hard-core followers are. With PR, PAS had about 20% of the Malay vote, BN got 50% of the Malay vote. Suppose PH gets the 10% of the vote that PAS is going to lose. Because PAS is going to play spoiler, PH has to garner anat least 25% of the Malay vote from UMNO/BN to beat them. This mean taking UMNO/BN vote down to 25%.

    Posted 8 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • The issue is not multicornered fights. The issue is whether there are two parties/coalitions which stand in all seats. The people can choose between the two.

    Posted 8 years ago by Joe Fernandez · Reply