DAP’s Teo said it “exposes BN’s true intention of attempting to consolidate power by bypassing” the people’s mandate.
“If BN believes in democracy, they should face the voters, not invent new ways to avoid them,” she said.
MUDA’s Amira also questioned the accountability of such appointees, noting that public funds would be used to pay their salaries.
“This Bill … gives blanket power to future governments to do whatever they want by appointing five (people to shore up support for them),” she told CNA.
Teo further said the state should prioritise long-delayed electoral boundary redelineation, pointing to disparities where some urban constituencies exceed 100,000 voters while certain rural seats have around 20,000.
“Instead of correcting this through long-overdue redelineation, the state government is choosing to sidestep the problem by creating unelected positions,” she said.
Despite the intensifying contest at the state level, analysts say the rivalry may not preclude cooperation further down the line. Once the state elections conclude, both BN and PH could recalibrate their strategies ahead of GE16.
“Much easier for the two coalitions to contest against each other in these two states and then keep options open for collaboration or some sort of agreement to avoid competing in key seats in the next GE,” Hutchinson told CNA.
Taylor’s University’s Ong suggested the state polls could also serve as a test for BN’s ties with PN, particularly in exploring a broader alignment of Malay-Muslim parties, as part of the grand collaboration of Malay-Islamic parties as proposed by Zahid earlier this year.
“BN will take advantage of its strong showing in the (two) southern states to see if PN, particularly Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), wants to have some sort of electoral ‘understanding’ with BN where they will still compete against one another, but the narrative they will take is one of ‘friendly competition’ with room to cooperate after GE16 to form the federal government,” Ong said.
For PH, the timing of national polls remains the more delicate calculation.
Hutchinson said PM Anwar is likely to hold off, given signs of softening support.
Recent media reports cite an internal PKR analysis indicating vulnerabilities across many of the party’s seats, including Anwar’s own constituency of Tambun. A significant number of seats the party hopes to contest are also reportedly classified as difficult or competitive.
“The current signs are that PH and PKR, in particular, are very vulnerable, with considerable voter dissatisfaction even in bastion seats. Thus, they could conceivably be swept from power at the national level if polls were held now,” Hutchinson said.
“Given this, it is likely that they will seek to regain momentum in the months ahead,” he added.
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