Come to think of it, pap purposely made themselves appeared weaker to deceit everyone the competition was intense and sound the alarm there was a real danger of regime change. Opposition did the opposite by campaigning from a position of strength. To make it appeared they were fighting a winning battle when in reality, many do not even come close to threaten pap. But this scared the middle ground, fearful that there was a real danger of pap falling amid the economic uncertainties ahead.
It might perhaps be more tactically sound if opposition does the opposite. To play the underdog and emphasize they are fighting an uphill battle to make pap work harder for their mandate.