Because of DAP, Pakatan is now down to 36% of the popular votes
And that is why Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali does not want to turn his back on PAS. He knows that with about 50% Malay voters in Selangor, Amanah would not be able to hold even 2% while 48% would be split between Umno and PAS.
NO HOLDS BARED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
In May 2013, PAS, PKR and DAP combined garnered 50.87% of the popular votes. No doubt they keep repeating that the figure was 53%. However, that is not true. They are just using the argument that since Barisan Nasional won 47.38% of the popular votes that would mean Pakatan Rakyat won 53%.
Anyway that was in May 2013. Today, since DAP kicked PAS out of Pakatan Rakyat — and they formed a new coalition called Pakatan Harapan that does not include PAS — PKR, DAP and Amanah now only have 36% of the popular votes.
The breakdown for Peninsular Malaysia in the 2013 general election was as follows.
Barisan Nasional’s 47% popular votes were 39% Malays, 3% Chinese, 3% Indian and 2% ‘others’.
Pakatan Rakyat’s 51% popular votes were 22% Malays, 24.5% Chinese, 4% Indians and 0.5% ‘others’.
In the recent party election the Amanah group won only 20% of the votes. So we can assume that 80% of the PAS members no longer support Pakatan. And as at December 2015, there were only 500 registered members of Amanah compared to 1.1 million registered PAS members.
It is estimated that only 3% or 210,000 from the seven million Malay voters would vote for Amanah. That would mean Pakatan has lost about 15% of its 51% leaving it only 36%.
‘Killing off’ PAS by splitting it into two and by kicking the party out of the opposition coalition also brought the opposition majority down from 51% to 36%.
DAP thought that if it could sideline PAS then that 15% would stay with the opposition. Unfortunately it has not and even Saturday’s anti-TPP rally proved that the Malays were with PAS and not with Amanah when Tian Chua got booed the instant he mentioned Amanah.
And that is why Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali does not want to turn his back on PAS. He knows that with about 50% Malay voters in Selangor, Amanah would not be able to hold even 2% while 48% would be split between Umno and PAS.
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