KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — The Klang Valley’s new crop of Umno Youth leaders think fielding fresh faces in the upcoming general elections will give Barisan Nasional (BN) a chance to win Selangor.
Petaling Jaya Umno Youth division leader A’zlan Abu Bakar said a major reshuffle in terms of candidates is necessary, especially for urban seats.
He said BN’s recent wins in the Johor and Melaka state elections signal the coalition is the preferred choice.
“We can see in Johor and Melaka that Umno is still relevant even among urban folks because the people can see what the previous governments have done in the past four years.
“Putting fresh faces would be the best bet for BN even if it means that we have to consider a major overhaul in terms of deciding which seats Umno and other BN component parties should field their candidates.
“We can even see that in my constituency, traditionally a MCA seat... the scenario might be changing with the addition of Undi18 and other first-time voters,” he told Malay Mail.
In the previous general election, PKR MP Maria Chin Abdullah defeated BN’s Chew Hian Tat and PAS’ Noraini Hussin with a whopping 57,137 majority.
Echoing A’zlan, Gombak Puteri Umno division chief Natassia Roslan said that the BN win in Melaka was proof that fielding new faces was not a bad gamble at all after the coalition won 21 out of 28 seats available.
She said political stability was the bedrock of the BN campaign and people realised that this is what will attract investors and make the economy prosper.
Natassia also mentioned that mass migration of the Malay population to urban areas for better job opportunities might be a game changer for Umno.
“If you look at the voter population in urban areas, you will see that most of the voters were non-Malays. However, you can see that in the past few years, there is a high migration of Malays into urban areas because of the booming economic development that gives them the opportunity to get a job with higher salaries.
“I feel like such a phenomenon will give Umno some sort of an advantage due to the fact that the party’s influence and its strength in a Malay populated constituency, we might get a result,” she said.
Subang Umno Youth division leader Alfie Zainal said the party is No. 1 when it comes to politics of servicing but urban voters have something else on top of their priority which is national issues such as a government that is free from corruption.
“It’s undeniable that Umno is the leading political party that prioritises servicing the people of this country.
“But for urban voters it’s a whole different game as people not only care about bread and butter issues but also national level issues such as a corruption-free government,” he said.
In GE14, Pakatan Harapan burnished its dominance in Selangor after securing 20 seats while BN only managed to grab two seats in Tanjong Karang through the state Umno chief Tan Sri Noh Omar, and Sabak Bernam through Datuk Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakeh.
