Polls: MUDA will not bring much impact on election outcome - Analyst

KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Ikatan Demokratik Malaysia (MUDA) will offer voters, particularly those below the age of 40, an alternative in the state polls but will have little impact on the outcome, according to a political analyst.

Dr Azmil Mohd Tayeb, senior lecturer at the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), believed MUDA's participation in the state polls could constitute a third wave in addition to providing a choice to fence-sitters.

"According to current voter trends, they (voters), whether young or old, want a party with values that fight for equal rights for all races.Therefore, I see MUDA as a viable alternative to them," he told Bernama.

The political system of the country, according to Azmil, would make it difficult for MUDA to compete with the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional alliance and Perikatan Nasional.

MUDA is only fielding 19 candidates in the state elections, with 14 in Selangor, three in Penang, and one each in Negeri Sembilan and Terengganu.

According to data from the Election Commission, 50 per cent of the 9,773,571 registered voters in the six states were under the age of 40.

Azmil said MUDA was now presenting a new political movement to voters in contested constituencies through cooperation with Parti Sosialis Malaya (PSM), a party renowned for its fight for the rights of all people regardless of race or religion.

"They (MUDA) seem to be actively demonstrating new political values through manifestos, social media and ceramah. Through the new politics, MUDA is also able to put pressure on other candidates by appearing more neutral with the idea of asset declaration, which is not done by any party.

"MUDA also highlights issues that are not given attention by other parties, such as the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 and education rights," he said.

Meanwhile, head of the Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia Associate Prof Dr Mohd Mahadee Ismail said that MUDA needed to have the 5M (Money, Machinery, Social Media, Manifesto and Manipulation), which was crucial to a political party's success.

"In my opinion, every candidate who is competing already has 'Money,' which is an allocation for their election campaigns, such as putting up bunting and paying for party machinery.

"In terms of party machinery, MUDA has yet to establish strong roots; in fact, it took BN, Pas, and PKR ten years to develop strong machinery, and even Bersatu is not yet strong because most of them (candidates) rely on Pas machinery," he said.

Mohd Mahadee said, however, social media has become a plus point for MUDA because the party was expanding through it by bringing people's issues to light and sharing about their manifesto.

He said that although the MUDA manifesto for the state polls covered every level of society, its ability to fulfil the pledges was contingent on the party's performance.

-- BERNAMA