PETALING JAYA: Voter turnout for the 15th general election (GE15) cannot be gauged from the high number of ballots cast during early voting, said University Malaya political analyst Prof Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi.
A total of 212,961 individuals (94.72%) fulfilled their responsibility as early voters, Bernama reported.
He said the high turnout could be because military and police personnel and their spouses feel it is their responsibility to vote, adding that it does not reflect what might happen on Saturday.
“It will be a national holiday and many people would be returning to their hometowns. Whether new voters will cast their votes remains to be seen.
“On paper, many of the younger voters are in favour of Pakatan Harapan (PH) and this is also reflected on social media,” he said, while stressing that support on paper does not mean it will translate to votes on polling day.
He pointed out that over 50% of voters are under 40 and it remains to be seen who they will support.
“In GE14, PH received wide support from voters. Most of them will be casting their vote for the second time.
“Many of them will think carefully before voting as they may not want to see a repeat of what happened after GE14.”
In GE14, 11.36 million Malaysians went to the polls, representing 76% of 14.96 million eligible voters while in GE13, 11.26 million voted from a total of 13.27 million registered voters in 2013.
GE13 had the highest turnout in terms of percentage in the country’s history of elections.
Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Prof Azmi Hassan said early voter turnout was at about 90% plus and this means generally, Malaysians want to go out and vote. Previously, it was about 80% and that was surpassed on Tuesday.
He said generally, early voters are military and police personnel and they usually vote for the government of the day.
“Barisan Nasional (BN) and constituencies that have a high number of early voters such as Titiwangsa, Setiawangsa and Trendak will benefit from it.
“The reason for the high turnout on Tuesday was the desire to make a decision not to (allow) a repeat of the aftermath of GE14,” he said, adding that the people are looking for a stable government.
Azmi also said it is likely the high turnout would be reflected on Saturday but there is an additional eight million new voters, of which 60% to 70% were first-timers.