The Pandan MP said this was established from surveys which showed the indicative turnout to be decent.
“The fear that people will abstain because of being disgruntled or disillusioned is not true, and this has been established month-by-month, survey-after-survey,” he said during a forum with youths at USJ here last night.
He was replying to a member of the audience who said he was not sure if youths would vote, as many were ignorant of politics.
Rafizi, who runs a think tank called INVOKE, said such views did not represent the reality on the ground.
Saying he had no worry whatsoever about this, and what some in the audience felt about this, he added: “The rest of the country feels that there is enough at stake, and they will come out and vote.”
During the last general election in May 2013, with the ruling Barisan Nasional taking on PKR, DAP and PAS in the then Pakatan Rakyat coalition, voter turnout was a record high of 80%.
However, in recent months, aside from youths, there have been many reports of fence-sitters and people who had voted with the opposition before now feeling disgruntled over the presence of recent Umno leaders as part of the coalition.
With PPBM joining the Pakatan Harapan earlier this year, its leadership has now come into the opposition fold.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is now PH chairman, former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin is one of four deputy presidents in the opposition coalition and former Kedah menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir is one of four vice-presidents. The trio are chairman, president and deputy president of PPBM, respectively.
Voters of all ages had suggested abstaining from voting in GE14 as a form of protest against the presence of these Umno leaders, who, these voters say, had contributed to the current state of affairs in the country, with too much power held by the ruling party and prime minister.
However, various leaders from PH component parties have been addressing the issue and reminding voters of the alternative, and how such actions would only help the BN continue to rule the country unchallenged for another five years.