INTERVIEW PKR is calling on voters to shift their polling addresses back to their hometown to pave the way for Pakatan Harapan’s takeover of Putrajaya in the 2018 election.

By boosting the number of voters in the rural and semi-urban seats, the opposition pact hopes to penetrate BN’s traditional stronghold through its new campaign dubbed ‘Undi Lah’, which was launched two weeks ago, PKR strategy director Sim Tze Tzin said.

"We are appealing to young voters, particularly those below 30 years old, to shift their polling address back to their hometown. This is the group of people that have yet to settle down at a particular place.

"We also call on the new voters to register their polling address at their hometown.

"We don't want them to register as voters in Kuala Lumpur, Puchong, Seputeh, Petaling Jaya Utara, or Petaling Jaya Selatan (PJS). No point in doing this," Sim said.

The urban seats cited by Sim are constituencies in which federal opposition candidates garnered high majority votes, ranging from 19,216 (PJS) to 51,552 (Seputeh).

"If possible, the voters in Seputeh or Pandan who feel strongly about this (ousting the BN) can just transfer their vote back to their hometown. This will help us tremendously.

"We want the young and new voters to go back and change Malaysia from their kampung," he said.

Ousting Zahid from Bagan Datoh

PKR hopes to see the fall of 60 ‘marginal’ seats, where BN won with 10 percent majority, back to opposition hands, Sim said.

The ‘marginal’ seats include Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's Bagan Datoh seat (won with a 2,108-vote majority), seven seats held by other BN ministers, and 10 won by deputy ministers.

The ministers' seats are: Teluk Intan (Mah Siew Keong, won by 238 majority votes), Bentong (Liow Tiong Lai, 379 votes), Jerai (Jamil Khir Baharom, 952 votes), Segamat (Dr S Subramaniam, 1,217 votes), Arau (Shahidan Kassim,1,371 votes), Bera (Ismail Sabri Yaakob, 2,143 votes), and Padang Rengas (Nazri Abdul Aziz, 2,230 votes).

The deputy ministers' seats eyed by the opposition are Labis (Chua Tee Yong, 353 majority votes), Sungai Besar (Noriah Kasnon, 399 votes) , Machang (Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub, 805 votes), and Titiwangsa (Johari Abdul Ghani, 866 votes).

In the last general election, the opposition raked in more than 60 percent of the votes cast in the urban seats. However, it only secured 45-55 percent votes at semi-urban seats and 35-40 percent votes at urban seats, according to the Bayan Baru parliamentarian.

PKR received 36 percent of Malay votes, 82 percent of Chinese votes, and 66 percent of Indian votes in the 2013 poll, Sim added.

BN and the opposition obtained 53 percent and 46 percent Malay votes, respectively, in the 2013 general election.

"If we are able to get a three to five percent swing of Malay votes in the next election, while maintaining the support of Chinese and Indians, we (PKR) will get an additional 20 parliamentary seats. (This means) Pakatan Harapan will get 119 seats," Sim estimates.

Based on that projection, the new opposition coalition would have a simple majority in Malaysia’s 222-seat Parliament.

Another challenge that Pakatan Harapan has yet to overcome, according to Sim, is in the registering of new voters.

"Pakatan Harapan is handicapped because we have no assistant registration officers (ARO). They (the Elections Commission, EC) has banned all political parties from registering new voters," he said.

The independence of the voter registration mechanism is an area of concern raised by groups that have been calling for an overhaul of Malaysia’s polling system.

Electoral watchdog Bersih has criticised the EC for allowing Department of Special Affairs (Jasa) personnel to become AROs, while stopping political parties from doing so.

This interview with Malaysiakini and KiniTV was conducted amid the sentiment among opposition allies and supporters - particularly non-Malays - who are critical of the party’s decision to continue cooperating with PAS which they say shoulder much of the blame for Pakatan Rakyat’s break-up in June

Also present was PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli, treasurer Tan Yee Kew, and its Youth wing secretary-general Chang Lih Kang.

Yesterday: Rope in PAS or risk losing GE again, Rafizi cautions