SHAH ALAM – The percentage of voters who will go out to vote will be low if the 15th General Election is held during flood season.
Political analyst Dr Mazlan Ali also predicted the government party would face a loss as the decision to hold GE14 during the Northeast Monsoon season showed that it did not think about the life and safety of the people.
"How are the people going to go vote when they are facing floods?
"Their main focus at the time is surely to save themselves and their property as well as moving to a safe area or temporary evacuation centres (PPS).
"So other than the percentage of voters being low, the people would be furious towards the government because the election was done without any consideration of the time," he said to Sinar Harian on Monday.
Previously, Barisan Nasional (BN) Chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi stated BN was willing to tread waters and heavy rains if GE15 was held this year.
The Umno President said the signal given to the party members for GE15 to be held as soon as possible was clear.
Mazlan who is a Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Perdana Centre Razak Technology and Informatics Faculty Senior Lecturer explained the actions to have GE15 within this odd timing would be made into the model the opposition would use causing the governing party such as Umno and Pas to lose.
He said if an area suffered a flood the voting centre could be forced to close causing the voting process not to be held smoothly.
However, Mazlan said the flood situation would not be an issue for Umno to bring voters out to vote, on top of the die-hard voters who would still vote no matter rain or shine.
"He explained Umno had the capabilities to bring voters from PPS to the voting centres.
"Die-hard voters would follow Umno when they bring voters out to vote but I am confident on-the-fence voters wouldn't go out to vote.
"It is unimaginable if flood victims needed to perform their duties as voters even though it should not be their focus at the time,” he said.
Mazlan said the focus of the government should be on helping the people who were suffering or affected at the same time as the elections.
"They need to be reminded after the dissolution of Parliament the government would be the interim government, if they wanted to release the budget to help flood victims it would bring an issue," he said.