GE-14: Pakatan Harapan stands a good chance of gaining control of Putrajaya,says Sage Daim Zainuddin

May 3, 2018

by Annabelle Lee@www.malaysiakini.com

Former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin accurately predicted the outcomes of the 2008 and 2013 general elections, and with just six days to go before polling day, he has offered his reading of the 14th General Election (GE14).

Daim (second from left) joining hands with Pribumi candidate for Pendang parliamentary seat Wan Saiful Wan Jan (right), Tokai state seat candidate Mohd Firdaus Jaafar (second right) and Sungai Tiang state seat candidate Abdul Razak Khamis in Pendang on May 1, 2018.

Last night, when asked if he believed Pakatan Harapan stood a chance to topple BN and take Putrajaya, he replied in the affirmative but said only if the opposition coalition met certain conditions.

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“I have three conditions: (First,) You must have good candidates with integrity, no corruption. Second, you must win the support of the rural folk, particularly the Felda settlers. “And (thirdly) the youth, 40 percent of voters are between the ages of 20 and 40, whoever who can swing that (can win the elections),” he told members of the press last night after giving a speech endorsing Harapan-PKR’s Lembah Pantai candidate Fahmi Fadzil in Kuala Lumpur.

Back in 2008, Daim accurately predicted that the opposition coalition at the time, then called Pakatan Rakyat, would win five states.

Five years later, he forecasted that BN would lose the popular vote, which it eventually did.

This election has seen Harapan hold many well-attended ceramah in rural areas and Felda settlements where many Malay voters live.  This had lent credence to the possibility of a “Malay tsunami”, or a swing of Malay votes in favour of the opposition.

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However, analysts and pollsters were sceptical about whether this would translate into a large enough swing to engender a regime change come May 9, especially with BN also improving on its approval ratings.

Eighty-year-old Daim joins a recent string of ex-ministers who have formally announced their support for Harapan.

Since two days ago, he has formally joined Harapan’s campaign trail, publicly announcing his support for several candidates and even urging people to vote against BN-UMNO, the party he previously served as a treasurer for.

During Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure as Prime Minister, Daim served as finance minister twice – once from 1984 to 1991, and again from 1999 to 2001. He oversaw the country through the 1985 and 1998 financial recessions.