SHAH ALAM - Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) are seen to be at the forefront after a week of campaigning for the 15th General Election (GE15) based on the party’s campaigning work across the country.
The two political coalitions looked more promising than Barisan Nasional (BN) and Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) through physical campaigning on the ground or online platforms.
Ilham Centre’s executive director, Hisommudin Bakar said that as of the first week of the campaign, PN was indeed in the lead as the coalition was seen to be more efficient in adapting to voter trends in the country.
"For instance, the current political wave is a social media campaign through TikTok. They are very efficient and utilise all the space to convey their message.
"The content produced on the platform was also recognised by the respondents we met,” he told Sinar Harian.
Hisommudin said that the ability of the PN machinery to dominate popular social media platforms among the community was also helped by the strength of the campaign carried out physically, including through flags and posters.
In the second place in terms of campaign strength was PH which was seen as still relying on the campaign tours to attract voter support.
"They will make the tour a platform to get a large number of supporters and a high number of views to show that it is the strength of support for them.
"The tour will then be shared on platforms like Facebook and YouTube but for me, it is an old medium.
"I see that in terms of TikTok, it’s not that there isn’t any, but they’re lagging,” he said.
Hisommudin said although PH managed to get a leap in its reach on social media through the live broadcast of its talk on social media, it still has not reached the level achieved during GE14.
Commenting on the BN campaigns in GE15, he said that the coalition was seen as not aggressive and seemed to have lost control in arranging the work carried out since the candidate nomination day on November 5, including in Malay majority areas.
"So, they are lagging behind in the physical aspect. Even on social media, they are not visible.
"I think they may be facing logistical problems because we found BN machinery, for example the operation rooms are not fully operational as before,” he said.
Hisommudin said the failure of BN and new coalitions such as GTA to generate new momentum in the campaign by the final week would cause them to lose the opportunity to attract support, especially from on-the-fence voters.
"This is because when the voting day gets closer, the group that did not take action when we conducted the study, will have a position in the end.
"So, this group from a large percentage is getting smaller and smaller.
"Imagine, during the group narrowing period to determine this attitude, BN did not play a role in offering their campaign and candidates, so I see if it is too late, they will be left behind,” he explained.
Voters Sentiment
Meanwhile, Merdeka Centre executive programme director Ibrahim Suffian said a survey conducted last week found that voter sentiment was positive towards PH and PN.
Ibrahim said in addition to receiving increased support from Malay voters to a higher level than before candidate nomination day, PH was found to have succeeded in improving the tendency of non-Malay voters to go out to vote.
"If this situation remains until voting day, we may see the potential for PH to win the largest number of seats in Parliament (compared to other coalitions),” he said, who also informed that the increase in Malay voter support for PH was obtained from West Coast states, cities and semi-urban areas.
Ibrahim said the increase in the tendency of non-Malay voters, which he said was quite significant in favour of PH, to go out to vote was due to their apprehension about the possibility of efforts to release former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak from prison sentence that he was serving.
He said other than that, also contributed to the increase in sentiment to go out to vote because voters were generally not satisfied with the current state of the country’s economy.
As for PN, he said, the coalition was seen to have successfully penetrated and attracted the support of Malay voters.
He said if the trend continued, it would allow them to seize more seats from BN.
He added that the increase in support was likely to be assisted by the fact that the coalition was seen as an alternative party that could be expected to fight for the Malay agenda other than Umno and BN.
"BN is in a state of danger because internal problems continue and voters in general lack confidence in the current leadership,” he said.