The Malaysian Insight

THE absence of government programmes in Port Dickson will not stop voters from voting for Anwar Ibrahim come Saturday, said an analyst today.

“We don’t see ministries or ministers campaigning in Port Dickson. Under the previous Barisan Nasional administration, ministries would have programmes during by-elections.

“However, Anwar is a big name and he does not need the government or ministries to campaign for him,” Azizuddin Sani of Universiti Utara Malaysia told The Malaysian Insight today.

He added that PKR’s machinery could sufficiently run Anwar’s campaign by itself.

Azizuddin, however, questioned whether Anwar’s machinery was enough to bring voters out on polling day.

He added that the presence of Bersatu chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also prime minister, on the campaign trail was an added bonus.

Meanwhile, Ilham Centre chief executive officer Mohd Azlan Zainal said the bigger issue for Anwar was the appearance of politicians running their own campaigns in Port Dickson in support of Anwar.

“These are politicians came to just show their face and apple-polish Anwar, the next prime minister.

“They want to ensure a bigger mandate for Anwar but the question is whether voters are responding to this,” he said.

He added that numbers for the by-election may follow recent low voter turnout trends set in three other by-elections held after the 14th general election.

“Anwar’s challenge is to counter fatigue among voters. Although Anwar’s campaign has received wide media coverage, voters seemed to be quite laid-back about the by-election.

“They are not very responsive to the campaign.”

Yesterday, Anwar said the Port Dickson by-election had set a historic precedence as the ruling government did not utilise any government machinery for its candidate’s campaign.

“This is the first time in Malaysian history that an election where the candidate from the ruling party did not use government machinery to campaign,” he said.

He said neither had there been any development projects announced in this by-election to woo voters.

On Sunday, Election Commission chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said politicians holding government posts, including ministers, should not be involved in election campaigning during office hours.

He said such activities during office hours amounted to abuse of power.

He also said politicians should not use government assets and facilities for campaigning purposes. – October 11, 2018.