Barisan Nasional’s offer to give Perikatan Nasional posts in the Melaka state executive council if the two coalitions win the state election is a political investment ahead of the 16th general election, according to analysts.
BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Sunday that BN would allocate exco posts to PN if their alliance wins the Melaka polls on Nov 14. BN is contesting 23 of the 28 state seats, while PN is fielding candidates in the other five.
Universiti Malaya academic Tawfik Yaakub said PN would not be needed in the state government in terms of numbers if BN won a comfortable majority, especially a two-thirds majority. He said the offer showed BN wanted ties with PN that went beyond electoral cooperation, including making sure votes transferred between supporters of both coalitions.
He said the understanding could develop into a power-sharing arrangement, with PN assemblymen possibly made speaker or deputy speaker of the state assembly, or placed in government-linked companies and local authorities. He cautioned that this could unsettle Umno grassroots members, especially if BN could govern on its own, and spark competition over portfolios and state resources, adding that Zahid’s main challenge was winning grassroots acceptance for the understanding reached by the leadership.
Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said BN could dominate Melaka and form the government alone, but working with PN mattered for the wider contest ahead of GE16. He said BN hoped to draw on PN’s influence, particularly that of PAS, to mobilise Malay voters at a time when recent controversies had shaken their confidence, and that Umno wanted to keep up a narrative of Muslim unity that would be hard to sustain without PAS.
He said Zahid was opening the door to PN in Melaka to protect relations between the two sides in the future.