GE15: Seat allocations for Muda an issue due to its distinctive target group

SHAH ALAM - There will be issues on seat allocations for Muda in the 15th General Election (GE15) due to the party having a distinctive target group that only focuses on young voters.

Political analyst Muhammad Fuad Othman said for Muda to have a high impact, they have to approach constituents with a high percentage of young people.

“Their main constituent is only the young, the name itself is Muda so that's their weakness because their target group is very specific,” he said.

He also said it would be better for Muda to not go for constituents of the traditional Malay belt as they would often opt for Umno and they have their own youth components like Pemuda and Putera Umno.

Meanwhile, political expert Professor Zainal Kling said he was unsure if Muda could stand on its own to cover many constituencies.

He said since no arrangements had been announced between Muda and other party components under Pakatan Harapan (PH), Muda might have to compete with them as well.

“There would be at least lots of areas where they have to compete with each other so to that extent, it will not work for them very well,” he said.

Also of the same view, Dr Azmi Hassan from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) said seat allocations for Muda would be a big issue as they had no history to back their demands.

He also said the Johor state election results could not be used as Muda’s history.

“They cannot use Johor as their history as Johor did not demonstrate Muda's strength,” he said.

Even so, he added that since Muda will be joining hands with PH for GE15, he hoped that what transpired in the Johor polls would not happen again.