Dr Mahathir Mohamad believes that the massive turnout at a Pakatan Harapan ceramah in Kedah last night indicates that the wind of change is blowing in favour of the opposition coalition.

Similarly, DAP lawmaker Liew Chin Tong claimed that it signalled the coming of a Malay tsunami.

However, Communication and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak disagreed, arguing that crowds do not translate into votes.

"This is the problem with the opposition. They count their chickens before they hatch and they translate crowds during ceramah to votes," he said in a blog post this evening.

The Umno leader recalled how the opposition crowd during the Sanggang by-election campaign in 2000 was so huge and the traffic jam was miles long.

Salleh said Mahathir, who was then still prime minister, had commented about it.

"However, the PAS candidate lost the by-election to the Umno candidate.

"The same happened in Indera Kayangan when 30,000 people turned up at the PKR ceramah and next door only 300 were at Menteri Besar Shahidan Kassim's event. But PKR's candidate lost to MCA.

"More recently, Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar are two more examples.

"Since 1990 the opposition has been told that crowds do not translate to votes but they never listen. Maybe once GE14 is over and the votes are counted they may begin to understand," he added.

A repeat in Perlis?

In a Facebook posting earlier, Mahathir thanked the people of his home-state for turning up in droves for the ceramah in Guar Chempedak.

"Parliament has not been dissolved, but the people are ready to change (the government)," he added.

Mahathir, who turns 93 this year and is crisscrossing the nation to speak at various ceramah, also urged Malaysians to rise up for the future of the country.

"Last night Kedah, tonight Gunung Medan Utan Aji in Perlis. See you there," he said.

Mahathir, who led Umno for more than two decades, has positioned his new party Bersatu as an alternative to the backbone of the ruling coalition.

Harapan, on the other hand, is hoping that the former premier would fill the vacuum left behind by Anwar Ibrahim's imprisonment and PAS' exit, with regard to capturing Malay votes.

The coalition also hopes Mahathir's presence at the helm of Harapan would diffuse Umno's claim that DAP controls the other parties and poses a threat to the position of the Malays and Islam.

Umno and BN leaders, however, have dismissed the possibility of Mahathir generating a Malay tsunami.

PAS, on the other hand, believes that the Islamist party would benefit in the event of a major swing in Malay votes.

Johor PAS commissioner Abdullah Husin argued that the tsunami would not be in Bersatu's favour due to the latter's relationship with DAP.