Naming Tun M as PM candidate may backfire, says Analyst

PETALING JAYA: All may not be well with Pakatan Harapan although the opposition front was a picture of euphoria on Sunday when it officially named former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as its prime minister candidate.
Naysaying from mainly Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders aside, Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research programme director Ibrahim Suffian said an opposition front led by Mahathir will not only fail to march into Putrajaya in the next general election, it will instead hand BN the two-thirds majority in Parliament.
According to a report in China Press today, BN may garner a smaller percentage of votes in the 14th general election (GE14) compared with GE13 but disunity within the Opposition, multi-cornered fights and the redrawing of electoral boundaries will put BN at an advantage.
"At present, BN is only 13 seats from regaining the two-thirds majority (in the Parliament)," he said, adding that while opposition parties are nowhere near working out an electoral pact, BN is poised to regain the two-thirds majority it once held.
He believed that PAS, in ensuring that Malay power is not fragmented, may try to prevent a Pakatan win.
It may lose in Kelantan and Selangor as a result but may be rewarded by the ruling coalition in return, he said at a talk at CIMB on general election recently.
He said BN's victory will not have anything to do with the policies of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak or BN's stand but owes it to Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang for allowing PAS to break away from Pakatan resulting in the split of Pakatan votes.
He foresaw keen fights in Kedah, Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Johor and Sabah.