Lee Chean Hung, the deputy director for Pahang PKR’s election operations said the coalition was banking on former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s charisma to draw Pekan’s voters to its side. Mahathir is chairman of both PPBM and the Pakatan alliance.
“We’ll use the Mahathir pull factor to the hilt,” Lee said.
Najib has been the MP for Pekan since 1976, except for four years from 1982. In the 1982 general election, he ran for a state seat and became Pahang’s menteri besar for one term.
According to a 2010 census, 95% of voters in Pekan are Malays, and conventional wisdom says this makes it a safe seat for anyone from Umno, especially Najib because of his power and influence as prime minister.
This was the principal reason for the Pakatan consensus on placing a PPBM candidate in Pekan, Lee said.
“PPBM’s strength is that it can draw votes from hardcore Umno supporters as it is a splinter of Umno,” he said. “There are also fence-sitters, urbanites, and non-Malay voters there whom Mahathir can attract.”
He said Pakatan believed that Mahathir’s outspokenness about his disagreement with Najib would add to his magnetism in campaign rallies leading to the upcoming election.
Recently, Lee alleged in a press interview that there had been an increase in army camps in the constituency since 1999, making it even more daunting for Pakatan.
The coalition announced at its convention on Jan 7 that it had chosen Mahathir as its prime-minister-designate and PKR president Wan Azizah Ismail as his deputy.
The announcement met with mixed reactions from within the coalition itself.
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