UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has called on the party’s supporters and fence-sitters in particular not to easily believe survey findings of voter sentiment for the 15th General Election (GE15).
He contended that this is because there are survey organisers who are close to a certain political party “and there are also surveys that are not close to a certain political party, but are friendly towards a certain party leader or representative”.
“It is clear that findings from the survey are close to the taste of a certain leader or a party,” he justified in a recent Facebook post.
“(For example), there is this voter sample which is sometimes less than 1,500 voters in size. But the findings seem to reflect the entire situation, attitude and stance of the country’s 21 million voters.”
This, according to the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, is what BN’s enemies are currently doing given they are “very desperate and are staring at a defeat soon” situation.
According to Zahid, there are times when questions are asked through random phone calls. It is certain that the potential voters – when contacted – will not offer real answers – especially in propensity questions – and more so after being told that the vote cast should remain a secret.
“For the sample of voters surveyed, it can be deduced that those who do not know the caller must have doubted the caller’s motive,” opined the Bagan Datuk MP.
“So it is very difficult for the voters contacted to be honest about their true choice of candidates/parties. What more, the fact that the questions are posed ‘incessantly’ and the phone numbers were obtained without the consent of their owner have also pissed of many respondents.”
Similarly, Zahid said some political parties possess the tendency to engage in psychological warfare in a planned way so as to give the image that their party is “far ahead” even though the true reality is the exact opposite.
“For example, Perikatan Nasional (PN) tries to play psychological warfare on social media as if it can afford many seats. Many psychological wars are conducted through TikTok to convey false claims of their popularity,” he revealed.
“This is when winning even 25 seats nationwide is an impossible task because the number of their members (PN) is very small and some are not even confident in PN’s struggle in addition to some members having exited Bersatu en masse.”
Zahid further expressed his amazement at Bersatu for its large source of funds which has enabled the party to exhibit its flag in a big way although the party is still in its in infancy.
“All of this is purely cosmetic considering the fact is that PN is not popular and has been rejected at the grassroots level by people in this country,” he pointed out.
Zahid further expressed hope that BN members will not be influenced by the false propaganda of the coalition’s enemies who are trying various strategies to minimise BN’s impact in the GE15.
“They themselves are in fear. Several parliaments such as Pagoh (stronghold of PN chairman and Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin), Larut, Bukit Gantang, Batang Serai, Masjid Tanah, Jeli, Hulu Terengganu, Mersing, Sabak Bernam, Tasik Gelugor are among the parliamentary constituencies that BN sets its eyes to re-capture during GE15,” he added. – Nov 14, 2022
Main pic credit: Bernama
