KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — There is no necessity for Pakatan Harapan (PH) to work with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the 15th general election (GE15), as he did not sway the Malay electorate in 2018, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli said.

Malaysiakini reported Rafizi as saying that based on his data, the former prime minister and current chairman of Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) did not bring in Malay votes for PH in GE14.

"(Back then) it was felt that Mahathir could bring Malay support and I tracked that number every month since 2016.

"There was nothing that suggested having Mahathir onboard brought a wave of Malay support (for Harapan),” Rafizi told Malaysiakini, adding that the Malay support figure for PH remained stagnant for several months after Dr Mahathir and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) joined PH in 2016.

He said that support from the Malays only started to grow towards the end of 2017. Dr Mahathir has since left Bersatu and PH in the aftermath of the Sheraton Move which ejected PH from Putrajaya and founded Pejuang.

"But we really started to see the swing in only the last three weeks of the election, so it’s not actually about Mahathir or anyone.

"It is a cumulative work of two to three decades of convincing the public that there can be a better government with a better plan for the country,” Rafizi added.

Rafizi added that PH was already increasing in popularity among the people and that Dr Mahathir was just smart enough to realise the coalition’s potential then.

"Mahathir is a seasoned politician. He knew that at the rate things were going, especially after 2013 when Pakatan Rakyat won the popular vote, it was a matter of time before these people (the Opposition) pushed and crossed the line,” he added.

Rafizi reportedly said that while he was not against the idea of being inclusive, he was however, always apprehensive about allowing Bersatu to join PH from the get-go, and only wanted PH to maintain an electoral pact with the Umno splinter party, as he felt Bersatu did not gel in with PH’s image.

On October 22, PH secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said that the coalition is prepared to face GE15 without Pejuang and its chairman, Dr Mahathir.

Despite PH chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s willingness to meet Dr Mahathir again, Saifuddin Nasution indicated that future collaborations with the former two-time prime minister to face off against Barisan Nasional (BN) is very unlikely.

Dr Mahathir is now leading an eclectic alternative Opposition coalition called Gerakan Tanah Air and has confirmed he will defend his Langkawi parliamentary seat in the November 19 national polls.

On October 21, he extended an invitation to Anwar for a possible electoral collaboration. The PKR president said he was open to meet but was non-committal on teaming up again in GE15.

Dr Mahathir was prime minister following the 2018 general election that catapulted PH to Putrajaya.

His administration collapsed in February 2020 after several MPs from his then-party Bersatu and PKR struck a deal with their Umno and PAS rivals.