State polls: Pas can win more than 60 seats – Analysts

SHAH ALAM – Pas is able to win more than half of the 126 State Legislative Assembly (DUN) seats that the party will contest in Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Penang in the next state elections.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) political analyst Dr Mazlan Ali said this was not impossible based on Pas’ performance, which controlled 76 state seats before the dissolution of seats in the six states at the end of June.

Furthermore, he said, Perikatan Nasional (PN), controlled by Pas and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), managed to win all the parliamentary seats in Kelantan and Terengganu in the last 15th General Election (GE15).

In fact, PN also almost swept clean all the parliamentary seats in Kedah except for Sungai Petani which PKR won.

It had also successfully won seats such as Permatang Pauh and Kepala Batas, which were PH strongholds.

Because of this, Mazlan was confident that Pas would be able to maintain the status quo of the state government in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah if outside voters and young people continued to support them in the next state polls.

"Overall, I see that Pas can achieve its target of winning more than half of the 126 seats contested in the next state polls, even though they face great challenges from the BN and PH coalitions.

"Based on research conducted by me and UTM researchers, we found that the green wave that started during GE15 still continues in Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, and now Penang," he told Sinar Premium.

However, Mazlan explained that the green wave was expected to have less impact on voters in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan because the two states were PH strongholds.

Increase in youth votes for PH-BN Mazlan said that the study also found that there was a slight increase in support, especially among voters on the fence and young people, for the PH-BN coalition after the formation of the Unity Government and the narrative carried by the administration of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for more than seven months.

"The situation will also change after the Unity Government, including the Prime Minister himself, went to the field to meet students at universities and provide explanations on various issues through the mainstream media and social media, compared to the situation during the last GE15," he said.

Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniZA) political analyst Dr Hussain Yusri Zawawi, on the other hand, expected that Pas would continue to dominate the state governments of Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah based on its performance as the party with the most seats in PN in the last GE15, which was 49 seats.

In fact, Hussain said Pas was able to win several seats in Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, and Penang, even though it may face a fierce challenge from the PH-BN coalition in the next state polls.

"The achievement of Pas cooperation in PN allowed the party to gain a place and the attention of Malaysians, in addition to the political pattern and state of the country, which gave it merit.

"I am also confident that the Pas wave will continue to rise, not to mention that the issues related to people’s lives and the pressures of life at present have not been resolved well, thus giving an extraordinary blow to PH-BN," he said.

He said Pas could defend Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah because of its relatively good leadership performance and the manifesto that was fulfilled.