PETALING JAYA: As the battle for the hearts and minds of the Malays takes centre stage in the upcoming state elections, Pakatan Harapan officials are working hard to ensure that non-Malay voters also get equal attention.
They want to prevent a low turnout among their staunchest supporters as it could adversely affect the results in certain states as was seen during the 15th General Election (GE15) last year, and the Johor and Melaka state polls in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
“We will strive to mobilise everybody to vote,” said Selangor DAP organising secretary Lau Weng San when asked about the possibility of a lower turnout among Chinese and Indian voters.
He said the ruling coalition wants to secure a high voter turnout from all communities in the polls in Selangor, Penang, Negri Sembilan, Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah, which are expected in August.
Another Pakatan leader, Lee Chean Chung from PKR, said the coalition will ensure that every voter realises that his vote counts.
“Not voting is not a smart way to respond to what the country is going through. There are two blocs competing in these elections and they have different policies, competencies and directions,” said Lee, who is PKR communications director.
In a study, political analyst Prof Bridget Welsh of the University of Nottingham-Malaysia’s Asia Research Institute wrote that the turnout of Chinese and Indian voters dropped by 14% and 9%, respectively, in GE15 compared with GE14.
One of the reasons for this drop was that outstation voters could not afford to return to cast their ballots and a feeling that their support did not matter, she wrote in her study that was published in March.
“Studies find that voters opt to stay home when they feel their votes don’t count or when the party or coalition they have long supported treats them as if they don’t count,” Prof Welsh wrote.
The drop in turnout for Chinese voters affected Pakatan’s chances in the Lumut, Parit Buntar and Kuantan parliamentary seats during GE15, she added.
Going into the state elections, Pakatan officials are also concerned that the above turnout trend could be repeated if attention is not paid early enough to appeal to Indian and Chinese voters.
“As we have seen in the Johor and Melaka state elections, the turnout was low because outstation voters did not return as they felt that the elections wouldn’t affect the price of eggs,” said a Penang Pakatan official who preferred not to be named.
Ooi Heng, who heads the Kuala Lumpur-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, a civil society group, echoed this observation, saying there is currently a lack of a pull factor to get Chinese voters excited about the state elections.
“Among some Chinese voters, there is the feeling that even if they don’t go back to vote, Pakatan will still win in Penang, Negri Sembilan and Selangor,” said Ooi Heng, referring to the states that have the highest concentration of Chinese voters.
Pollster Hisommudin Bakar said the turnout rate among non-Malays will be different among the six states as not all have a high number of outstation voters.
“For instance, Selangor will likely have a higher turnout from all communities because most of their voters live and vote there. So they don’t even need a day off to travel to vote,” said the executive director of the Ilham Centre.
This was reflected in Welsh’s study, where the Chinese voter turnout was 75% in Selangor and 74% in Negri Sembilan and Penang in GE15.
For Indian voters, the turnout rate in GE15 was 81% in Selangor, 77% in Penang and 74% in Negri Sembilan.
Hisommudin said the non-Malay communities could be fired up to go out and vote if they saw that the Opposition coalition, Perikatan Nasional, was gaining the upper hand during campaigning.
“Non-Malays do not want to see PAS coming to power in the states that Pakatan controls, so their turnout rate will go up if they see Perikatan taking a hardline stance,” he added.
