COMMENT | Speculation continues to flare over whether Dr Mahathir Mohamad will be named as Pakatan Harapan’s candidate for Prime Minister.

One of the bigger questions asked about this is: is this a morally correct move?

Unfortunately, that is the one question I cannot afford to address satisfactorily in this article. It really is a conversation with too many considerations and details.

While leaving the answer to that question open (even though it may be the most important question of all), we can still try and better understand some of the political dynamics at play in this controversy, and make estimations of the comparative political impact such a move would have.

The most basic question we can start with is: how will choosing to nominate Mahathir as candidate for prime minister affect Harapan’s performance in GE14?

All BN guns aimed at Mahathir

I think the best way to find the answer to this question is to look at BN over the past few weeks and months.

In this time, the amount of BN guns that have been aimed towards Mahathir has been nothing short of astounding.

I would almost go so far to say that BN has practically ignored everything else about Harapan, essentially construing Mahathir as the one and only relevant threat.

Everyone goes out of their way to attack Mahathir - Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak (photo), Umno, MCA, even PAS.

Scanning the news reveals this easily discernible, consistent pattern.

This is significant, because we must remember, the ruling party has access to state apparatus and data collecting resources leaps and abound above everyone else.

It is widely believed that large sections of the police Special Branch fulfil the role that in other countries is often played by professional pollsters: doing on the ground political polling and research.

Their findings are obviously fed back up the chain of command, and I think a reasonable assumption to make based on BN’s attacks is that Mahathir is having a significant impact on the electorate...