JOHOR BAHRU: The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition may have won a large number of seats in the Johor state election earlier this year, but there is no guarantee of a repeat performance at the federal level in the upcoming polls, said analysts.
Dr Francis Hutchinson, a senior fellow and coordinator of the Malaysia studies programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said BN, which won 40 out of 56 seats at the state elections in March, has got “a real core of motivated voters”.
“But beyond that, the messaging, as well as the vision for the country, the awareness of issues that people face, cost of living, post-COVID-19 economy, all of these, have not been actually touched upon effectively by Barisan Nasional to enable them to make inroads,” he added.