GEORGE TOWN, July 18 — The Pakatan Harapan (PH)-Barisan Nasional (BN) unity government hopes to retain the Penang state government with a two-thirds majority, said Penang PH chairman Chow Kon Yeow.
He said the PH administration should be able to return to power, this time with BN as partner, in the August 12 state elections.
“Our aim is to win over the fence sitters in marginal seats in this election,” he said in an interview with Malay Mail.
He said PH has existing secure seats that will allow them to retain power in Penang.
“I will be happy for us to retain between 30 and 32 seats in Penang,” he said.
Penang has a total of 40 state seats and in the 14th General Election (GE14), PH won 37, including two by Bersatu when it was still under PH, while BN won two, and PAS one.
Chow, who is caretaker Penang chief minister and Batu Kawan MP, said the state election will mostly be a battle between the two main coalitions, the PH-BN coalition versus Perikatan Nasional.
“However, we can’t disregard the issue of acceptance of candidates so we will be putting forth candidates who had performed well to gain the support of the constituents and they will be going up against mostly fresh faces by PN,” he said.
The Penang lawmaker is confident that Penang voters are still highly supportive of the PH administration.
“Based on our opinion polls, we received a comfortable percentage (of support) of about 70 to 72 per cent generally from voters,” he said.
According to opinion polls, Malay support for PH is also above 50 per cent but there are fence sitters that they will have to win over in this election.
He said the high percentage of support could be due to the state administration’s efficient management of the state economy which has racked successes for the state.
When asked if the recent 3R issues (race, royalty and religion) that were raised by their political opponents could sway voters, Chow said PH-BN will have to work hard to counter these messages with PH achievements for the state.
He believed 3R will not be a major decider in the state polls as the opinion polls revealed that the main issues Penang voters are concerned about were traffic congestion and the rising cost of living.
The Penang DAP chairman also noted that in the past five years, there were very few protests and demonstrations over 3R issues.
“There were protests over the PSR but we have very few racial issues,” he said, referring to the Penang South Reclamation project.
He said the opinion polls also revealed that the acceptance level of him as the chief minister among the Malays is still good.
On the possibility of a lower voter turnout that may impact PH-BN’s performance in the state polls, he said they will have to work hard to convince voters to go out to vote.
“We must impart to them the importance of coming out to vote for us so that we can continue with the work we have started,” he said.
He said now that the federal government is a PH-BN unity government, it would be an advantage for the state government to be in line with the federal administration.
“It will be easier for us to implement our planned infrastructure projects because we are aligned with the unity government,” he said.
