PMTG PAUH Only two days left for to the much anticipated Permatang Pauh polls on Thursday, and Pakatan Rakyat is already feeling jittery about the outcome.

PKR feels that a low voter turn-out may spell doom for its candidate Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail's chances of retaining the seat.

The party's strategic director Sim Tze Tzin said that an informal survey conducted on about 1,000 voters in the parliamentary constituency, only about 68 percent of voters will return to vote.

“This is worrying,” he said, at Pakatan Rakyat’s daily press conference in Yayasan Aman, Kubang Semang today.

“DAP’s Dyana Sofya (Mohd Daud) had a bad experience in Teluk Intan’s by-election last year,” Sim ( left ) added.

According to PKR, there are about 7,000 outstation voters - out of 71,000 voters in Permatang Pauh - who are not expected to return home to vote as Thursday is a working day for them.

Sim asked the Election Commission to explain what is the rational behind choosing a working day for voting as it dampens one's constitutional right to exercise their voting rights.

Asked if PKR is bracing for a lost in Permatang Pauh, Sim said “we have not done any analysis yet”.

“We can only ask the voters whether they will return to vote or not.

Send Najib a message

“We leave it to the wisdom of the people to choose their MP. If they think the country is going in the right direction, they can vote BN, no problem. But if they do not, please come back to vote and send Najib a message,” he stressed.

In May last year, Dyana Sofya lost to Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong by a wafer-thin majority of 238 for the Teluk Intan seat.

Permatang Pauh’s former MP Anwar Ibrahim won the seat with a majority of 11,721 votes in the 2013 national polls, when the voter turn-out was about 88 percent.

PKR is concerned that with the low voter turn-out, there would be a repeat of the 2004 polls result where Azizah won with a small majority of 590.

Azizah is contesting the seat for the fourth time against Umno’s Suhaimi Sabudin, PRM’s Azman Shah Othman and independent candidate Salleh Isahak.

Keen political observers are predicting that PKR may retain the seat, held since 1982 by Anwar - but with a slashed majority of between 2,000 to 5,000 voters.

Sim appealed to voters to return to vote as the outcome of this by-election is a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He said the result will indicate if the people accept the manner in which BN is managing this country.

“Everyone, regardless of ethnicity, across Permatang Pauh feels the same way about the country’s economy.

“When we went on house-to-house visits, we asked several motor shops owners on how is business and their answers are all the same. That business is bad,” he said.