He said the trend was evident from the voting patterns of police and military servicemen, and from PN’s success in winning the Putrajaya parliamentary seat from Barisan Nasional.

Putrajaya, the federal administrative capital, is largely populated by civil servants.

Shahril’s comments came in the Keluar Sekejap podcast, where his co-host, Khairy Jamaluddin, said that the PAS candidate for the Simpang Jeram by-election is Dr Mazri Yahya, a former government doctor, while many other PN nominees has also spent time in the civil service.

“I think these (candidacies) are the latest examples of civil servants and members of the Malay establishment coming out to support PN,” Shahril said. “It does not mean that (the voting pattern is consistent across) the whole country, but it is clearly a trend that they (civil servants) want to promote,” said Shahril.

Separately, Khairy criticised Pakatan Harapan supporters who claim that civil servants are backing PN because of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s stance against corruption. He said such an assumption was insulting, “as if something is wrong with the voters when they make such choices”.