Johor state election outcome – your views

I spoke to a couple of PKR people following the elections closely.

One of them based in Johor Bahru said Barisan Nasional would win 31 of the 56 seats if the turnout does not exceed 65% of the votes.

A PKR insider, however, provided a grimmer picture: he said Pakatan Harapan would win less than 10 seats – a repeat of the Malacca election. A lot of money is at play. The other reason he said is that votes are being split with so many parties contesting while the staunch Umno supporters will continue supporting Umno. Finally, the lower turnout among PH supporters, especially those in Singapore, could hurt PH’s chances.

So far, turnout is only 46% at 3pm. But that could also be due to the large number of newly registered voters under the new automatic voter registration system, many of whom were too apathetic to register in the past.

Let’s see if the new young voters from 18 to 21 will make any difference and confound the analysts. By the way, Chile has just elected a 36-year-old as its president. How’s that for muda (young)!

Perhaps the parties in this election, apart from PSM, have lacked any meaningful message – apart from opposing corruption — that made them stand out from the rest of the parties in the field? For instance, how do these parties plan to empower the lower-income group? What are their plans for public healthcare, affordable housing, quality education and public transport – tangible areas that many can actually experience on the ground?

Where do the opposition parties go from here?