Melaka State Election: Adly Confident Young Voters Can Change Electoral Calculations

MELAKA: Adly Zahari is confident that young voters can give Pakatan Harapan (PH) an advantage in the Melaka State Election.

The Melaka PH Chairman said the response from young voters during his visits to 11 polling centres today indicated positive developments for PH.

According to him, about 70 per cent of the polling agents and counting agents (PACA) working for him were young people, unlike in previous elections.

“I noticed that the percentage of young voters turning out to vote is quite high, and I hope this will favour PH.

“This may slightly change the analysis made previously,” he told reporters after casting his vote at Sekolah Kebangsaan Durian Tunggal here today.

Adly, who is also Deputy Defence Minister, arrived at about 4 pm with his wife, Dalilah Awaludin, and their children.

Commenting on voter turnout, Adly was optimistic that the 70 per cent target set by the Election Commission (SPR) could be achieved.

“If more voters turn out in the remaining hour and a half, we may be able to surpass the 70 per cent turnout mark,” he said.

Meanwhile, commenting on the low voter turnout in Kesidang, Kota Laksamana and Pantai Peringgit, Adly did not rule out the possibility that some voters, particularly business operators, had chosen to cast their ballots later in the day.

Nevertheless, he remained confident that PH could retain the coalition’s key seats despite differences in voter turnout across constituencies.

On the election results, Adly said PH would only conduct an assessment after the voting process had concluded.

According to SPR, 66.02 per cent, or 441,798 of the 669,211 voters, had cast their ballots as of 4 pm.

The Serkam state constituency recorded the highest turnout at 75.50 per cent, followed by Ayer Molek (74.00 per cent) and Tanjung Bidara (72.67 per cent).

In contrast, Bandar Hilir recorded the lowest turnout at 54.29 per cent, followed by Kota Laksamana (58.67 per cent) and Sungai Udang (59.57 per cent).

The figures showed that three state constituencies had already exceeded the 70 per cent target while voting was still underway.

Astro AWANI