RISING cost of living and the unpopular Goods and Services Tax (GST) were the top reason voters swung to Pakatan Harapan, said Rafizi Ramli, dismissing popular belief that the pact’s victory was down to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s popularity.

Rafizi said early results of a post-election poll by Invoke Malaysia had shown that voters were more affected by the two issues than by their sense of loyalty towards Dr Mahathir. 

“We are doing a post-election polls. I’m inclined to conclude now and the data will verify it. End of the day, biggest issue is still bread and butter issue. Is about GST more than anything else,” the Invoke founder told Malaysia Decides in an interview. 

He said while Dr Mahathir was popular with voters, his party Bersatu’s less-than-sterling performance in his home state of Kedah was proof that he was not the deciding factor in PH’s victory.

PH managed to wrest control of Kedah from the Barisan Nasional coalition, but Bersatu only won three seats, while PKR won six and Amanah won one.

PAS also managed to wrest three seats from BN, including defeating Bersatu’s Wan Saiful Wan Jan in Pendang. 

“Dr Mahathir was a huge impact previously in Kedah, but this time around PAS won big in Kedah. 

“That means, as far as Malays are concerned, if they had to choose between Dr Mahathir’s Bersatu and PAS, they chose PAS. That, I think, is quite telling more than anything else,” Rafizi said. 

International analysts and observers have cited the “Mahathir factor” as a key reason for the unexpected results in GE14, where PH won 122 seats and BN only 79 seats out of 222 in Parliament.

Dr Mahathir was able to unite a fractured and squabbling opposition and his leadership gave structure to PH as it went into GE14.

Pundits have also attributed PH’s electoral success to the fact that Dr Mahathir and his party Bersatu were able to penetrate rural Malay areas, where PKR and DAP had little or no traction. – May 27, 2018.