The Malaysian Insight

UMNO will be handicapped if it decides to go it alone at the next general election without the cooperation of Bersatu and PAS, said a research group.

According to Pertubuhan Intelektual Negara (Pintar), the integrity of Umno’s candidates was an issue raised by a majority of respondents in a study conducted by the group.

Pintar president Mohd Roslan Mohd Nor told The Malaysian Insight this while elaborating on its findings, which the group released yesterday.

 “According to our survey, the concern of the majority of the respondents is that Umno’s candidates do not have integrity,” said Roslan.

“If Umno enters the general election alone, the image of the candidates will be a stumbling block to the party.”

Roslan, however, did not clarify what the integrity issues were.

The study by Pintar, Ikatan Ilmuwan Nasional and QgenAnaylst involved 4,000 respondents from across the peninsula between June and December last year.

The study covered state assemblies and parliamentary constituencies that were mixed seats.

As a result, Pintar said it can project Umno that will lose the support of the Malays in the event of a three-cornered contest in a mixed seat.

However, it also predicts that a two-thirds majority can be achieved if Umno continues to work with PAS and Bersatu, and, by doing so, can control up to 162 seats and avoid three-cornered fights.

Roslan said the survey took into account the conflicts among the Malay-Muslim parties in the government, namely between Umno and Bersatu.

Umno, which is now at loggerheads with Bersatu, is pressuring Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin by withdrawing its support for Perikatan Nasional (PN).

Pintar said its findings showed that no coalition will succeed in getting the majority in the event of three-cornered contests involving parties in PN.

Roslan said they believed this even though Pakatan Harapan (PH) is seen to have an advantage.

“These three-cornered fights will prove that no party will get the simple majority of 112 seats in the 222-seat parliament,” he said.

He said, although PN agreed to join the Umno-controlled Barisan Nasional (BN) after the 15th general election, the number of seats they controlled may decrease.

Roslan said this is because respondents intend to choose only stable coalitions during the election.

“The people want a stable coalition before the election and not after the election,” he said.

He said if three-cornered fights occur, the three Malay Muslim parties are looking at only 104 seats from communities in which Malays are the majority.

“In other words, the results of the 14th general election will repeat, with PH getting the largest share with at least 41 Malay-majority seats,” he said.

Putting pressure

After Umno lost GE14, the party formed a partnership with PAS in 2019 with the aim of winning GE15.

A year ago, it collaborated with PN to take over the government, joining Bersatu, the Sarawak Party Coalition and parties in BN.

Since then, Umno has put the pressure on Muhyiddin and Bersatu, among others, in part due to the accusations of misconduct and corruption made against its senior leaders.

Umno, which controls the largest number of seats in PN, is also dissatisfied with Muhyiddin as many of its senior leaders were not appointed to key government positions due to court cases they were involved in.

The crisis continued with Umno’s decision to use the BN logo in the next election.

Two Umno MPs, Ahmad Jazlan Yaakob (Machang) and Nazri Aziz (Padang Rengas) have already withdrawn their support from the PN government.

Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had endorsed a vote of no confidence against Muhyiddin in Parliament.

Umno also announced that 118 of its 190 divisions have decided not to cooperate with Bersatu in GE15.

The uncertain support was one of the reasons Muhyiddin applied for an emergency declaration, which resulted in the suspension of Parliament.

An emergency effective January 11 to August 1 was declared last month.

Muhyiddin assured the country that he would dissolve Parliament as soon as the pandemic was under control. – February 19, 2021.