No party will gain majority - Political analysts

SHAH ALAM - Political analysts are not denying the possibility that no party will gain a majority vote to establish a government if there is a three-corner fight between Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) in the 15th General Election (GE15).

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) International Studies Centre lecturer Prof Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani said although BN has its advantages, the endless internal issues and the breakdown of the Malay votes could affect the voting results.

At the same time, PH was seen to be more aggressive in approaching voters besides having a strong cooperation of election machinery.

“The advantage for now is still with BN. However, it depends on the dynamic within the party itself. If there are internal problems, there may be a chance for other parties such as PH or PN.

“The reality of national political dynamic is currently from the by-election or at state level election. Right now, the decisions in the Johor and Melaka state elections have became irrelevant and is a sign.

"For instance, the Covid-19 issue, even though there are still cases it is now the new norm.

“If there is an election, people will come down to vote and the presence of new voters joining election campaigns would be vigorous and I think it will attract the votes as well,” he said.

He said although the Malay vote was on BN's side, there were issues of disunity and voters having other choices such as PN, Warisan and Pejuang.

“That is why I see that there is a possibility that there will be no party that will succeed in forming a government and that has happened before when there was a three-corner clash," he said.

Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Election Studies Associate Professor Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi said he was of the view that the real competition involved two political giants which were BN and PH.

This, he said was considering that PN was not being dominant and Bersatu was still too minimum to give an impact. “I think PN is not capable of providing competition. It would break the Malay votes dominated by Umno. It would affect BN's votes, but not PH.

“When this happens, it is not impossible that no party gets a majority. That is why Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi previously stated that they need to prove their victory first.

“After there is a clash and competition, they will think about a new coalition or cooperation. It will only be decided after GE15,” he said.