Kelantan voters wanted to hear about alternatives, says analyst

KOTA BARU: Ilham Centre says the low 60.96% voter turnout in Kelantan was due to protest by voters based in the state.

Its executive director Hisomuddin Bakar said based on his field research, Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional’s crushing defeat in Kelantan had nothing to do with outstation voters returning in droves to vote for PAS.

Rather, he said it was due to Pakatan-Barisan’s failure to do its groundwork sooner.

“Our centre’s work on the ground revealed that professionals in Kelantan wanted to see change and they attributed PAS’ victory to outstation voters who don’t understand the plight of locals.

“The reason for the Pakatan-Barisan defeat in Kelantan is due to the component parties’ misstep in reaching out to local voters and as a result, they refused to go to polling stations,” he said when contacted.

PAS managed to secure an absolute majority by winning 43 of Kelantan’s 45 seats at stake despite the low turnout.

Hisomuddin said most Kelantan voters did not fully understand the offers made by Pakatan and Barisan although the pact’s manifesto could have benefited them greatly.

With locals getting tired of PAS’ stagnant leadership and administration, he said Pakatan-Barisan would have been able to win their hearts easily if only they had started their groundwork earlier.

“Pakatan-Barisan only announced their manifesto one week after the campaigning period began. Why didn’t they announce it sooner? And why didn’t they take extra effort to make voters understand what they were offering?” he said.

He said Pakatan-Barisan could have also taken advantage of the local controversy involving Kelantan’s outgoing deputy mentri besar Datuk Mohd Amar Abdullah who, according to locals, was not very well-liked.

“Kelantan folk were actually waiting for Pakatan-Barisan to announce its MB (mentri besar) candidate. They wanted to know if they would have had a better alternative than the complacent PAS state government line-up.

“But Pakatan-Barisan never announced its ‘poster boy’ and because of this, Kelantan voters did not feel confident enough to give their votes to the unity government (alliance),” he said.

On groundwork being important to voters, Hisomuddin said this was proven by Dr Hafidzah Mustakim’s victory in Kota Lama, a constituency that has been long hailed a PAS stronghold.

For five terms since 1995, the Kota Lama state seat was held by Datuk Anuar Tan Abdullah from PAS.

With Dr Hafidzah being from Amanah, things did not look bright for her in the beginning due to the party’s poor image in Kelantan.

“But she managed to win. Why? Because she had been working on the ground in Kota Baru since 2018,” he said.

In the Kelantan polls, Pakatan won in Kota Lama and Barisan in the Galas constituency, which largely consists of Orang Asli voters known to be loyal to Umno.