Barisan Nasional

Barisan Nasional has added Penang to the list of target states at GE13 where it is confident of winning over disaffected PKR and PAS supporters who are tired of the dominance of DAP and Lim Guan Eng.

According to the Malaysian Insider an internal BN report lists 15 Penang seats BN will pick win this election. The MI quotes an unnamed source who said “Umno is campaigning against the weak leadership shown by PKR and PAS in the state. Everything is about the DAP and Lim Guan Eng. There is no team in Penang.”

Or indeed, no team in Pakatan Rakyat federally.

Internal polling?

The BN internal polling flies in the face of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s confident assessment that rather than lose support in Penang, he can export his leadership model to the entire nation as part of a sure fire election strategy.

He recently told voters: “If you want to be as good as Penang you must vote for us.”

But instead the opposite could now prove to be the case. Rather than the whole nation embracing the Guan Eng political dream, voters in Penang will show at the ballot box how sick and tired they are of DAP’s arrogant leadership including the seemingly endless feud between Karpal Singh and Dr P Ramasamy that has merely been papered over in a so-called peace deal brokered by Guan Eng.

Indian voters are set to desert the party in droves following a string over anti-Indian outbursts by Chinese party members. Already PKR has publicly conceded it too will lose Indian votes at GE13.

And following reports that Guan Eng’s Penang administration sold off land set aside for a mosque, Muslim voters know that the Penang model being espoused by Guan Eng offers nothing to them.

BN’s confidence in Kedah is perhaps less of a surprise given the recent leadership crisis in the state that exposed the weakness of the PAS leadership at a national level.

Kedah MCA chief Datuk Chong Itt Chew said: “We (BN) have seen in the four years that their (PAS) administration is weak and there have been no change, including development which they should have brought about.”

“Kedah BN is ready to face the coming general election. As the Kedah MCA chairman, I am very confident that BN can win back Kedah. We have been making the best possible preparations after our loss in 2008,” he said.

The Prime Minister has set his ruling coalition a challenge of reversing the gains made by Pakatan in 2008 and that confidence in Kedah and Kelantan is now spreading into Penang.

Next target, the PKR held Selangor.