Not true that PH lacks Malay support - Anwar

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has rubbished claims that the coalition received only 19 per cent of Malay votes in the 15th General Election (GE15) and thus lacked Malay support.

Anwar, who is the prime minister, said a preliminary analysis of the polls results showed that PH received the support of 31 per cent of Malay voters overall, and the data would be updated in the next two weeks.

He said if PH received only 19 per cent Malay support as claimed, it would not have won 82 parliamentary seats in GE15 last November.

"Of course there were areas with low (Malay) support, especially in Kelantan and Terengganu, but in other places we received more than 50 per cent Malay votes, like in Selangor, Penang, Federal Territory (KL) and Negeri Sembilan," he told a press conference at the PKR headquarters here today.

Earlier, Anwar chaired several meetings, including the PKR Central Leadership Council meeting, which was also attended by PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli.

The PKR president also said that with the people's support for PH as well as parties in the Unity Government, namely Barisan Nasional (BN), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and several other political parties, he is confident that they can steer the country as a solid team.

"If we add (the people's support) in the Unity Government now (PH, BN, GPS, GRS and other parties), we would have more than two-thirds of the total number of votes in the last GE.

"We are confident we (the Unity Government), with two-thirds (support) of Members of Parliament representing two-thirds (support) of voters, we can continue to steer the country as a solid team, use the space available to clean up the culture of corruption and propel the national economy more convincingly," he said.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said the Turkiye government had requested assistance following the earthquake that hit the country.

"I have directed the minister to immediately prepare a team and send it quickly. We will send the SMART team (Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team), which is trained to handle cases like this.

"Although Turkiye has this strength (rescue team), being a close ally, our assistance is very meaningful," he said.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Functions) Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali, in a statement today, said 75 SMART members and the equipment needed in the search and rescue (SAR) operation will be flown to Turkiye tonight.

A strong earthquake was reported to have jolted the southern region of Turkiye's Kahramanmaras province early Monday and the Turkiye Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) announced that the 7.4 magnitude quake which struck at 4.17 am (0117GMT) local time was centred in the Pazarcik district.

According to media reports, the disaster has claimed 912 lives in Turkiye, while 476 more fatalities were recorded in Syria.

The Foreign Ministry (Wisma Putra) reported that no Malaysian has been affected by the earthquake so far.

-- BERNAMA