ASEAN Monitoring Desk Islamabad
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim suffered a second election setback within weeks on Saturday after his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition lost to rivals in the Negeri Sembilan polls. Official results at midnight (01-02 Aug) showed Barisan Nasional (BN) winning 18 seats, coupled with Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) seven for a supermajority of 25 over PH’s 11 in the 36-seat assembly.
The country’s second state election in under a month was a test of the stability of Anwar’s coalition government, as PH locked horns again with federal ally BN at the state level. The latter had partnered with the opposition PN in Negeri Sembilan.
The victory for BN-PN was another blow to PH, fresh off its drubbing in the Johor polls on July 11. It could also mean a snap general election called well ahead of the February 2028 deadline.
In the last state election in 2023, PH won 17 seats, BN secured 14 and PN won five, with PH and BN partnering to form the state government.
BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Saturday night thanked voters for putting their trust in BN’s candidates and the coalition’s machinery, adding that the electoral understanding with PN would produce a stable state government.
The Election Commission said final voter turnout was 72.64 per cent, with 646,084 votes cast, including early, postal and normal voters. In the 2023 polls, final voter turnout was 68.35 per cent. Some 860,000 people were registered to vote at 401 polling centres statewide, with 36 state assembly members to be elected from a field of 103 candidates in tight three-way races.
Parties contesting centred their campaigns on the economy, jobs and public service.
Electoral cooperation between BN and PN has also shaped the battle. While they contested separately, BN deputy president Mohamad Hasan said his machinery would help PN candidates in agreed constituencies under a seat understanding, similar to the strategy adopted in the Johor election.
The Johor showdown on July 11 saw BN sweeping 48 seats – up from 40 in 2022, while PH managed only eight and lost ground from its previous 12. BN’s two-thirds majority retained gives it absolute power to pass constitutional amendments and redraw electoral boundaries in Johor.
The Negeri Sembilan results also saw surprise losses by PH candidates including Transport Minister Anthony Loke and caretaker chief minister Aminuddin Harun.
Loke, also the Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) secretary general, lost his seat in Chennah to BN’s Siow Kong Choon by fewer than 500 votes. BN’s Mohd Faizal Ramli clinched Linggi with 8,427 votes to Aminuddin’s 5,881.
“This is the straw which breaks the camel’s back – in terms of the party secretary general losing their state assembly seat,” said Oh Ei Sun, principal adviser at Pacific Research Centre of Malaysia and senior fellow at Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
He said DAP would need to do some serious “soul searching”, including distancing itself from PH.
“By continuing to associate themselves with this government, they are asking for trouble and will continue this losing streak,” Oh said.
DAP, long branded as a Chinese-majority party, forms the largest bloc of PH’s coalition. It is mistrusted by Malays who perceive the party as a threat to the dominance of their ethnic group.
Sunway University political scientist Wong Chin Huat agreed that Loke’s defeat could trigger a call from within the party to distance itself from Anwar’s PH to retain its base. “It would be a tough decision either way.”
Courtesy : South China Morning Post
