UMNO wants early polls as Malay voter support for the party is on the wane, Rafizi Ramli said.

The PKR deputy president said based on a recent survey by PKR, Malay support for the lynchpin Barisan Nasional party has dropped from 27% to 18%.

“There is a reason why Umno wants to hold the next general election in November.

“Based on our survey of 2,500 Malay voters, support for the party at the beginning of August was 27%. This was before the littoral combat ship scandal went viral and before Najib Razak went to prison.

“Now, in the aftermath of both of these that happened within a month, Malay voter support has dropped to 18%,” he declared at the “Ayuh Malaysia” campaign last night.

Rafizi said if anything, the 9% drop should alarm Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

“If the support is so strong, it will not matter if the election is held in November or next February or April,” he said.

The former Pandan lawmaker maintained that the opposition’s main concern about a monsoon election is that it will put many lives at risk.

He reckoned this year’s floods could be the worst one yet due to climate change.

“We should not underestimate it. We should be focusing on how many boats are needed for the floods and the number of schools needed for emergency shelters,” he said.

Rafizi said instead, Putrajaya is willing to risk this and hold the general election in November.

For his part, Zahid reasoned yesterday that the caretaker prime minister could tackle the floods and deploy the resources needed to provide relief to victims.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Umno’s proposal to dissolve parliament soon is a collective decision made by the party’s Supreme Council.

He declined to elaborate when asked whether specific dates had been suggested for the dissolution to pave the way for the polls.

The Umno vice-president, however, did not rule out the possibility of the polls be held this year as stated by the party’s secretary-general, Ahmad Maslan, in a statement issued after Friday night’s Supreme Council meeting.

Ahmad, in a press conference after the meeting, said Umno’s Supreme Council wanted parliament to be dissolved soon to enable the general election to be held this year. – October 2, 2022.