MALACCA: It was a bitter lesson for Pakatan Harapan (PH). Taking in traitors is suicidal.
By fielding two of the four rebels who engineered the fall of the previous Malacca government under its banner, PH lost dearly in Saturday’s state election.
Political analysts believe voters had abandoned PH in protest of its decision to take in Datuk Seri Idris Haron and Datuk Nor Azman Hassan.
PKR, the lead party in the coalition, lost in all the 11 seats it contested, while Amanah won only one of the nine in which it fielded candidates.
DAP also suffered as a result of PKR and Amanah’s move to take in the rebels.
The party, generally more popular with urban voters, had nine candidates in the election but came through with only four seats.
According to political analysts, the low voter turnout also helped Barisan Nasional (BN) secure victory. Only 65.85% of the 495,195 voters turned up to cast their ballots.
Universiti Malaya political analyst Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi noted that BN received only 3% more votes than PH (BN garnered 38% while PH had 35%).
“This shows how protest votes have affected the results.”
PKR and Amanah decided to field Idris and Nor Azman respectively over protests from DAP.
Both men were sacked from Umno when they announced on Oct 4 that they no longer supported Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali, the incumbent chief minister.
Sulaiman was sworn in as chief minister again yesterday after BN secured a majority.
Awang Azman said the PH leadership’s failure to listen to the grassroots had resulted in some of their supporters either voting against them or boycotting the election.
“Why the need for PKR and Amanah to name the two Umno ‘frogs’ as candidates? PH could have had better results if it had fielded a local,” he said.
He added that while more people are travelling as restrictions on movement have been eased, it did not mean that voters would rush back to Malacca to cast their votes.
“A huge majority of voters do not live and work in the state and their failure to turn up led to PH’s downfall.”
Awang Azman expressed hope that the PH leadership would learn from the debacle on how important it is to be in tune with the sentiment on the ground.
Universiti Teknoloji Malaysia geostrategist Dr Azmi Hassan agreed that protest votes played a major role in PH’s defeat.
“It is unthinkable that DAP would lose the seats that they were confident of winning. This shows how important a role protest votes by their own supporters can play in elections,” he told theSun.
Azmi said the unhappiness of their supporters translated into PKR losing all its seats while Amanah was able to retake only Bukit Katil, held by the popular former chief minister Adly Zahari.
He pointed out that voter turnout plays a huge role in determining which party wins an election.
“In the case of the Malacca election, PH would have benefited from a large number of voters returning from other states to cast their votes,” he said, adding that BN did not need many to turn up to vote to help it win comfortably.
“In fact, the low turnout has been tremendously helpful to BN.”
Azmi noted that the low turnout had been a big blow to DAP. The party was only able to retain four of the eight seats it won in the general election in 2018.
However, he said PN’s poor showing did not come as a surprise.
“They have no real grassroots support in Malacca,” he said, adding that PN assumed wrongly that using former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as its trump card would win votes.
“The assumption that Muhyiddin is a popular figure has been proven wrong. It is for the same reason that BN did not do the same with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob,” he added.
He said BN knew that Ismail Sabri was still not a prominent face, while using Muhyiddin had made PN an easy target for his critics.
Azmi said the election results also showed that Umno still had the support of the rural Malays, while DAP could still count on the Chinese.
“However, it is clear that PN will find it hard to get Malay support,” he added.
“In fact, the low turnout has been tremendously helpful to BN.”
Azmi noted that the low turnout had been a big blow to DAP. The party was only able to retain four of the eight seats it won in the general election in 2018.
However, he said PN’s poor showing did not come as a surprise.
“They have no real grassroots support in Malacca,” he said, adding that PN assumed wrongly that using former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as its trump card would win votes.
“The assumption that Muhyiddin is a popular figure has been proven wrong. It is for the same reason that BN did not do the same with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob,” he added.
He said BN knew that Ismail Sabri was still not a prominent face, while using Muhyiddin had made PN an easy target for his critics.
Azmi said the election results also showed that Umno still had the support of the rural Malays, while DAP could still count on the Chinese.
“However, it is clear that PN will find it hard to get Malay support,” he added.
