Emir Research projects Pakatan Harapan to gain 94 seats in GE15 while UMNO president to likely lose in Bagan Datuk
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(LEFT) EMIR research logo; (RIGHT) A Malaysian navy officer casted his vote as early voters on 15 Nov. (Photo: Election Commission Malaysia)
MALAYSIA — Voters in Malaysia will go to polling booths tomorrow (19 Nov) to decide the fate of the country in the next five years.
A total of
945 candidates are contesting 222 parliamentary seats of the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) in Malaysia’s 15th General Election (GE15).
It is said to be the fiercest election ever as 213 seats are contested by multi-cornered fights among the three major coalitions: Barisan National (BN), Perikatan National (PN) and Pakatan Harapan(PH).
Emir Research, a Malaysian think-tank released its
GE15 projection on 17 November for Peninsular Malaysia, predicting that Pakatan Harapan (PH) will win 94 seats, ahead of BN’s 46, and PN would only gain 24 seats.
The newly founded coalition
Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA, or Homeland Movement) led by 96-year-old Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, will probably only gain one seat, which is the Langkawi constituency defended by Dr Mahathir himself.
Emir research noted that the projections are based on a turnout rate of 77%, which was derived based on the poll aggregation that includes EMIR Research’s own projections.
The forecast predicts there will be 41 close-call seats with ±1,000 majority votes.
Datuk Dr
Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff, the think-tank’s president and CEO, was BERSATU co-founder and
joined PKR (People’s Justice Party) last month.
PH has fielded 206 candidates to contest in GE15. As one of PH’s component parties, People’s Justice Party is contesting
72 seats in total.
In its projection, Emir Research expects PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to be able to win the Tambun seat and Bandar Tun Razak seat respectively.
BN component parties leaders projected all losing seats
Emir Research also projected the likely loss by Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Umno president in Bagan Datuk; while Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong being, MCA president being voted out in his Ayer Hitam seat and MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran being ousted in Sungai Siput.
Zahid Hamidi is well known for his speech to urge BN’s dominant win in GE15 or face more prosecution.
He had recently been acquitted of all 40 graft charges against him in Foreign Visa System (VLN) case; but still faces other 47 charges of criminal breach of trust, graft and money laundering in the Yayasan Akalbudi case.
As for
Perikatan National coalition, it might lose its seat in Gombak defended by Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, caretaker Internal Trade and Industry (MITI) Senior Minister; while PAS as an ally of PN contest in 22 seats, would able to defend its stronghold in Kelantan and Terengganu.
Emir Research said its GE15 projection is based on historical trend analysis by looking up at least four general election results, reviewing its own quarterly sentiment surveys, and modelling the outcomes of the previous general election.
The centre has also conducted a meta-analytical study of the poll results reported by various Malaysia research houses over the period from mid-October to mid-November.
“EMIR Research team has paid attention to the distribution of poll-reported popular votes
across few important demographic variables such as gender, ethnicity, and domicile.”
“Then these results were combined with the actual proportions of those demographics among the voters in various states in Malaysia and averaged using meta-analytical software.”
Fitch Solutions: BN expected to win more seats
However, another
GE15 forecast done by
Fitch Solution on 31 Oct, predicted that the BN coalition to win the most votes, and will most likely form the next government, but with a high risk of a hung parliament.
“Malaysia’s short-term political risk index score stands at 64.8 out of 100, which is near its lowest on record, reflecting elevated political uncertainty, but we expect political stability to return once the new government is formed, reinforced by the “anti-party hopping” bill, ” the outfit said.
Fitch Solution projected that there is 10 per cent likelihood that BN will be forced to form the government with PN, or 15 per cent with other parties under hung parliament circumstances.
BN coalition had previously won Johor and Malacca State by-elections with landslide victories, reversing their loss in the 2018 state election. Fitch Solution noted that there are signs that the political momentum is in favour of BN.
“If these state polls provide an accurate depiction of the political sentiment at the national level, BN would likely win an outright majority at the November federal elections, and this would guarantee that they would be able to form the government. ”
However, Fitch Solution also warned that the youth vote could be a political game changer, given that the younger generation appears to prefer non-racial politics.
Just December last year, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 years old and automatic voter registration was put in place by the passing of the Undi18 (“Vote at 18”) bill in 2019.
These amendments to Malaysia Constitution have led to the addition of 6.23 million new voters, with a total of 21.17 million eligible voters in the GE15.