"Some have argued that the 1MDB scandal would have no impact on the election. I beg to differ. Yes, 1MDB alone probably won’t swing votes, but the fact that the voters will walk into the polling booth knowing that the prime minister had taken money into his own personal bank account is an important electoral factor. Otherwise, Najib’s rating would have gone back to the 60 percent level of pre-2015, and not hovering in the 30s, a recipe for disaster for Umno-BN. Whether they like it or not, both Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor are hated figures among the electorate. On the social media and political gossip circles, they are constantly ridiculed by parodies, not by the opposition but by the spontaneous public."