PAKATAN Harapan is losing favour among young voters, as seen from polling-stream data in the last five by-elections that the ruling pact lost of the 10 held since the 2018 general election, said Umno Youth leaders.

PH’s first loss was the Cameron Highlands contest in January 2019.

Since then, support for the pact, especially among young voters, has dropped dramatically, including in the latest by-election in Kimanis, Sabah, last month, said Umno Youth exco Bastien Onn, citing evidence from polling data that showed Barisan Nasional won in almost all of the youth voting streams.

Besides Cameron Highlands and Kimanis, PH was defeated in Semenyih, Selangor; Rantau, Negri Sembilan; and, Tg Piai, Johor.

The Cameron Highlands polls saw BN win 21 out of 32 youth voting streams, while in Semenyih, it won 32 out of 47 streams.

Youth voters’ rejection of PH intensified in Rantau, Tg Piai and Kimanis, where the pact lost in almost all of the youth voting streams.

In Rantau, BN conceded two out of 21 such streams to PH, while in Kimanis, BN lost only one youth stream, in the Gadong district, out of a total of 27 streams.

BN’s best result among young voters was in Tg Piai, where it swept all 52 youth voting streams.

The former ruling coalition bagged the seat from PH with a landslide margin of 15,086 votes.

Bastien said young people’s resurging confidence in BN is due to the government’s failure to fulfil its 14th general election manifesto pledges.

“The people have lost their patience, and their support has shifted to BN,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has failed to convince young people. As long as he fails, this trend will continue,” he said, referring to the youth and sports minister, who is the cabinet’s youngest member at 27 years old.

The PH government has also failed to provide real jobs for young Malaysians and is not managing the economy well, said fellow Umno Youth exco Mustafa Shah Abdul Hamid.

“Young voters were promised one million jobs and told that their loans from the National Higher Education Fund Corporation would be written off, but instead, many today are losing their jobs.”

In its GE14 manifesto, PH actually said it will delay the start of loan repayments until graduates earn RM4,000 a month, and will write off loans for standout performers or those from low-income households.

However, it has not been able to fulfil its promise to delay repayments.

Another Umno Youth exco, Mohd Fariz Abdul Hadi, said the switch in support to BN indicates that young voters have no qualms about changing governments if they feel unhappy.

“Young people have proven that they will use the power they have to decide which party leads the country.

“They will evaluate and compare the strengths of the BN government against the weaknesses of the PH government, especially in terms of welfare, the sluggish economy and the cost of living.”

Fariz and Mustafa said BN should capitalise on current voter sentiments to ensure this support is maintained into GE15.

“Umno and BN must offer a realistic alternative to voters to maintain this momentum. We must avoid fighting among ourselves and strengthen the cooperation we have,” added Mustafa, who is also chairman of the wing’s strategic communications bureau.

“We must also have strategic plans to address the weaknesses of the government.”

Meanwhile, Fariz said the Umno leadership should already be searching for and grooming new candidates from among youth, to field in GE15.

“The opposition, especially Umno, needs to have new faces and new talent from among young leaders who have fresh ideas.”

It is important for Umno to take the lead here, as it is the BN lynchpin, he said. – February 5, 2020.