Rafizi: GE15 tie-up with Pejuang unlikely as Dr Mahathir didn’t win Malay votes for Pakatan in 2018

By admin-s On Oct 31, 2022

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.

(MMO) – 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.