PN can take Selangor if 90% of Malays turn out to vote, says Muhyiddin

Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin is confident of victory for the coalition if 90% of Malay voters turn out to vote at the elections to be held in six states next month. 

He said the Malay voters would be key at the state polls, where PN will go up against allies Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN).

"If 90% of the Malays turn out to vote, we will win," he said at an event to announce the coalition's candidates in Taman Medan, Petaling Jaya, last night. 

"This does not mean that the votes of the Chinese and Indians are not important. But in Selangor, the majority of voters are from the Malay community. 

PN intends to field candidates for all 56 seats in the Selangor legislative assembly in its attempt to take Malaysia's richest state. 

Of these, 31 are from Bersatu, 17 from PAS and eight from Gerakan. 

PN won the bulk of Malay support at last year's general election, followed by BN and PH. 

Muhyiddin said that at the Nov 19 polls, 30% of Malays had not turned out to vote. 

"This is a big number," he said. "If only 5% of that 30% had gone to vote, we might have won three or four more seats." 

Singapore-based research centre Institute of Southeast Asian Studies recently published a field study questioning the extent to which the Malay vote among BN supporters would transfer to PH despite the pacts' cooperation at the federal level. 

"Malay BN voters will not necessarily vote for PH candidates, and Malay PH voters likewise will not necessarily support BN candidates at the state elections," it said. 

"On the other hand, among the Malay BN voters, 39% have said that they will vote for PN and only 15% for PH."