Voters in rural areas, traditionally a bastion of support for BN, may swing over to Pakatan Harapan if it recounts more success stories from opposition-led states in its campaigns, according to Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali.

Azmin, who is also a Harapan vice-president, said in an interview with Nanyang Siang Pau today that success stories from Selangor and Penang would show the people that the opposition is ready to govern in Putrajaya.

"The people will be full of confidence with the coalition in taking over Putrajaya, given our track record in administrating Penang and Selangor, that we definitely can govern Putrajaya and Malaysia," he said.

Read: Azmin: No more tolerating PAS in Selangor

Both states are among the biggest contributors to the country’s economy, Azmin noted.

"Selangor contributes to 23 percent of the nation's GDP, making it the largest state contributor," he said, adding that one of the greatest recent successes in Selangor was its inflow of foreign investment.

In Selangor, he said, the people are treated fairly, and they, in turn, respect one another’s cultures and religions.

"During the polls, Umno came up with claims that 'Malays will finished without Umno', but Harapan told the Malays that their rights would be protected, even if there was no Umno in Selangor.

"The Chinese and Indians were treated fairly, they take pride in being Selangorians.

"When we shared this with the Malays, they will say this is a right thing to do and they will be prepared to change," he said.

Azmin also cited Selangor’s decreasing operating expenditure and increasing development expenditure as a proportion of the state budget as one of the indicators of the state’s progress.

The Bukit Antarabangsa assemblyperson, who assumed office in 2014, had reduced the state's operating expenditure to 52 percent of the overall budget in 2015, and then to 50 percent, 48 percent and 46.7 percent over the next three years.

"This is the most successful thing about Selangor, there is no supplementary supply, unlike with BN.

“BN has to table a Supplementary Supply Bill in Parliament as it lacks proper planning in drafting the federal budget," Azmin said.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had come under fire last October for unveiling a federal budget that allocated 83.5 percent of the expenditure for operations.

"(BN) has a federal budget totalling RM300 billion, but we have only RM3.2 billion. Just look at how we performed. Imagine what we can do if we have the amount of money the federal government has," he said.

Azmin also stressed that Harapan has no intention to “rectify” Umno over its unfulfilled promises, but instead aimed to excise the “illnesses” plaguing the system.

"For this, we need the people to unite (behind us), for we cannot do this all by ourselves.”