THAT Perikatan Nasional (PN) managed to wrestle six Malay majority parliamentary seats from Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) in the recently-concluded 15th General Election (GE15) has enlivened the Opposition’s hope of orchestrating the fall of Selangor in the upcoming state polls should the PH-BN forced marriage deal turn awry.
With the six seats alone boasting 12 Malay majority state assembly seats, a victory of 29 seats out of 56 is enough to form a state government with a simple majority, according to Selangor PAS secretary Roslan Shahir Mohd Shahir.
“Out of the overall 56 seats in Selangor, there are 33 seats that have more than 60% Malay voters,” he shared his thoughts in HarakahDaily. “This ‘forced marriage’ setback is also expected to affect DAP which has vocally attacked UMNO previously.”
With die-hard PH voters within the non-Malay community left disappointed when DAP is willing to cooperate with ‘robbers and bandits’, Roslan opined that it will not be impossible that many will not go out to vote “because they are disappointed or if even if they do, they are very likely to spoil their votes”.
“Lack of support from this block (of voters) is a big threat to PH,” he contended. “This is the calamity that is befalling them (PH-BN) as a result of this ‘forced marriage’. Meanwhile, PN will continue to convince the people that the state polls are the best choice to bring about change through a ‘New Selangor’.”
Moreover, Roslan said the division of seats within PH-BN in Selangor is deadlocked with Barisan Nasional (BN) wanting to contest more than five seats that it previously won.
“Realising the weakness of BN in Selangor, PH especially DAP is not expected to give face, hence UMNO will likely be the partner with the smallest number of seats to be contested later. Even then, it is not certain if the party is able to win them (the seats).”
Delving further, Roslan said UMNO is currently without a strong pillar in Selangor after its state chairman Tan Sri Noh Omar was fired from the party because he was not on the same direction as UMNO’s president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“Noh has huge influence in Selangor which no other state UMNO leader to date can match his influence,” observed Roslan. “The question now is whether BN especially UMNO is an asset for PH Selangor or a liability that has to be shouldered?”
Similarly, in the eyes of UMNO members and supporters, will DAP after the ‘forced marriage’ consented by the UMNO president, able to assist UMNO in increasing its support or will it become more and more marginalised and sidelined by the Malay community?” – June 1, 2023
Main photo credit: HarakahDaily
