MCA-Gerakan ‘can take 20 seats combined’

Lau Zheng Zhou

KUALA LUMPUR: With MCA and Gerakan strengthening their ties within Barisan Nasional, both parties have chances of winning up to a combined 20 parliamentary seats in the 14th General Election (GE14), according to think tanks.

Centre for Public Policy Studies’ research and business development director Lau Zheng Zhou said the MCA-Gerakan collaboration may shore up their members’ votes for their respective parties.

“It will be interesting to look at the swing in marginal seats if the members themselves return to vote for their own parties.

“Some MCA members were thought to have previously voted against their own party just to show disappointment over seat allocation, apart from the general anti-establishment mood at that time,” he said.

The marginal seats in question include Raub, Selayang, Alor Setar, Taiping, Beruas, Kampar, Gopeng, Kuantan and Gelang Patah.

Lau predicted that for GE14, the two parties could win up to 20 parliamentary seats.

Last Saturday, MCA and Gerakan joined hands in an unprecedented rally, calling for unity and pledging to campaign hard together, in a bid to capture Chinese votes in GE14.

MCA is set to contest 40 parliamentary seats and 90 state seats while Gerakan is expected to vie for 45 seats in the elections.

In GE13, MCA won seven parliamentary and 11 state seats.

Gerakan presently holds two parliamentary and three state seats.

In GE13, only about 15% of the Chinese electorate supported Barisan.

Lau said MCA may target to win in some 20-odd parliamentary seats but the reference point will be the 15 seats won in GE12 in 2008.

“The MCA-Gerakan pact may exploit weaknesses in some PKR seats such as Selayang,” he said.

In August last year, Selayang MP William Leong resigned from PKR’s political bureau because of his party’s cooperation with PAS.

Such incidents, said Lau, could affect voter sentiments.

“MCA may pick up a few state seats such as Kuala Kubu Baru in Selangor,” he added.

SEDAR Institute chief executive officer Lee Chun Hung said MCA and Gerakan could aim for a swing of 25% to 30% of Chinese support, with a combined 15 to 20 seats between them.

More importantly, he said, their collaboration would nullify the negative perception that plagued both parties previously.

Lee also said the MCA-Gerakan rally last week was a statement of intent of both parties’ preparedness, focus and determination to regain political prominence.

“It sent out a clear message to the public that MCA-Gerakan under Barisan is a better choice,” he added.

Both parties’ presidents have warned that action would be taken against any members found undermining their joint effort.

At an event here yesterday, MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said MCA and Gerakan had started to collaborate even before the rally – during the Teluk Intan by-election in 2014, by setting aside differences between them.

He noted how MCA had worked hard on the ground at its president’s directive, to get votes for Gerakan president Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong, resulting in Barisan gaining 7.96% of the votes from DAP and winning the seat.

“There are many fields for us to work together to gain the rakyat’s support, for their betterment,” he said.