PAS admits decline in Malay support
Malay support for the Islamist party declined in the last general election but increased for the majority Chinese party, DAP.
Alyaa Ashar, FMT
Malay support for PAS and PKR declined in the last general election as opposed to the DAP, noted Dzulkefly Ahmad who heads the PAS general election postmortem committee.
In the winding speech for PAS’ 59th Muktamar, Dzulkefly said although Pakatan Rakyat can be proud of the popularity vote, the reality is: “Pakatan Rakyat is still not occupying Putrajaya”.
“Our hope to replace Umno as the main Malay party has therefore not been achieved,” he said.
Other than losing Kedah, PAS had lost many seats in the last general election, including the parliamentary seat of Kuala Selangor where Dzulkefly was the previous MP.
“PAS had a decline in Malay support at 2% while PKR’s Malay support declined at 7%. DAP however had an increased support of 2%,” he said.
He also pointed out how the female support for PAS is still low, at only 30%.
“As with the general support, we need to increase it from 40% to 44% if we want to be victorious in the next general election,” he said.
He was however optimistic for PAS’ future as the trend is still positive for the party, especially since its support increased in Terengganu and Johor.
Dzulkefly then said that wooing young Malay voters becomes priority as their number will increase in the coming general election.
The young voters’ current support for PAS is at 45%.
