Gearing up for face-offs
BARISAN Nasional will prove to be difficult for the Opposition to dislodge in Pahang, having been the stronghold for two prime ministers.
Although the Opposition made some gains in the last general election, it is unlikely that they will form the next state government seeing that multi-cornered fights are likely to be happening all across the home state of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
With a dearth of major local issues and a slew of mega projects on the way for Pahang, all Pakatan Harapan can hope for is to defend its seats and attempt to add a few more to it while Barisan aims to recoup its losses.
At most, Pakatan can try to deny Barisan its two-thirds majority in the state assembly.
GE13 saw the Opposition bloc upping its seats in the 42-seat state assembly from a mere four to 12. Ten of these seats are held by Pakatan assemblymen, while another two are held by PAS.
For parliamentary seats, the Opposition managed to grab Raub and Temerloh in the last election to add to Kuantan and Indera Mahkota, which they won in 2008.
However, the momentum kick-started by Pakatan in the last election has ground to a halt after PAS left the pact.
Now, Pakatan will have to contend with PAS, which has announced its intention to contest in all 14 parliamentary seats in the state and at least 38 state seats.
Pakatan will have a hard time if it has to battle PAS for the votes of Felda settlers, who will play a major role in determining who rules the state, seeing that 27 of the state seats have Felda settlements within their boundaries.
These settlements make up the Malay heartland of 12 parliamentary seats in Pahang.
Barisan can always count on the settlers to deliver the votes. With the exception of Bilut, Ketari and Sabai in Bentong and Triang in Bera, the rest of these Felda seats are held by Barisan.
While these areas are generally known as the backbone of Barisan’s support, the coalition cannot rest easy, especially in the case of Bentong, which saw its MP Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai defending his seat by just a few hundred votes in GE13, even though there is a sizable cluster of Felda settlements in the constituency.
It is difficult but not impossible for Pakatan to make inroads into the Felda areas if they can capitalise on the troubles faced by Felda lately.
Discontent over falling palm oil prices, the European Union’s decision to ban import of the commodity and weak share prices are all issues that may be played up to sway the settlers’ sentiments.
Barisan will have to keep the settlers happy lest there be a huge shift of support due to dissatisfaction over the way things are handled in Felda.
To counter the Opposition, Najib has made trips down to several Felda settlements in the state in the past week.
Besides making announcements of allocations for the upgrading of infrastructure in the Felda areas, Najib has reminded settlers of his late father’s legacy in championing rural development.
In an apparent reference to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Najib said at an event in the Felda Chini cluster that a certain “ripe” leader did not have the interests of the rural folk at heart.
“Compared to him, I am doing more for Felda settlers, padi farmers and fishermen,” Najib said, citing the various incentives and aid that were dispensed under his leadership.
The state is not significantly affected by the Election Commission’s (EC) redelineation exercise. The size of parliamentary seats in Pahang remains the same, but five state seats within Raub and Temerloh have been altered.
According to the EC report, the electorate of the Tras state seat in Raub grew by 4,780 voters to 27,823 after having the Sungai Ruan and Hulu Gali polling districts moved from the Dong state seat.
This reduced the number of voters in Dong to 11,827 from 16,607 when the EC study was done in 2016.
In Temerloh, the Mentakab, Lanchang and Kuala Semantan state constituencies will see changes in its electorate. Mentakab’s voter count grew from 17,279 to 22,189, while Lanchang’s voters were reduced to 21,456 from 23,922.
Kuala Semantan’s electorate will also be reduced to 23,202 from the previous count of 25,646 voters. This is the result of the EC accepting the state government’s proposal to have six polling districts in Mentakab moved to Kuala Semantan.
The proposal also included moving five districts in Kuala Semantan to Lanchang, with another two moved to Mentakab.
The Bukit Bendera district in Lanchang will also be moved to Mentakab, while the Sri Layang district in Lanchang will be split into two: Sri Layang and Taman Rimba.
Taman Rimba would come under Mentakab.
Tras, Mentakab and Kuala Semantan are held by Pakatan, while Lanchang and Dong are held by Barisan.
Come polling day, the more than 800,000 voters in Pahang will have to decide whether to maintain the status quo or put another chip in Barisan’s fortifications.