BERSATU Armada chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman was one of the first party leaders to take to social media to apologise to Semenyih folk for Pakatan Harapan’s loss in yesterday’s by-election. 

He also congratulated Barisan Nasional for capturing the seat in Selangor. 

“To the residents of Semenyih, I apologise if there was anything we lacked,” he posted on Twitter. 

“Congratulations to Barisan Nasional on their win in Semenyih.” 

He said his party will move forward from this. 

Bersatu Armada executive council member Mahathir Mohd Rais said the party had underestimated BN and its candidate. 

“We made several mistakes during campaign. We completely underestimated BN and its candidate,” he told The Malaysian Insight. 

He said PH had also underestimated the sentiments of the people, as political rhetoric no longer mattered compared to more pressing issues like cost of living and the economy. 

“PH must learn and never underestimate the sentiments of the people and learn from the result.  Political rhetoric no longer matters to the people,” he said. 

BN recaptured the Semenyih state seat when its candidate, Zakaria Hanafi, won the four-cornered contest with a majority of 1,914 votes.

Zakaria, 58, received 19,780 votes to defeat PH candidate Muhammad Aiman Zainali, 30, who obtained 17,866 votes; Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul, 25, of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (847 votes)  and independent candidate and community activist Kuan Chee Heng, 56 (725 votes). 

Umno leader Hishammuddin Hussein also took to Twitter to celebrate the victory, and thanked PAS for helping BN to victory. 

“Thank you to PAS machinery for striving hard to campaign (for UMNO) in Semenyih,” he said. 

He said the cooperation between both parties had paid off in the by-election.

“The unity of these two parties has manifested in the win,” he said. 

Umno acting president Mohamad Hasan thanked PAS on social media for their cooperation and work in the by-election. 

“I would like to thank the entire Umno machinery and BN component parties. Also not forgetting the leadership and support of PAS for tirelessly working with BN to campaign,” he said. 

MCA president Wee Ka Siong also took to social media to take a dig at PH while congratulating BN. 

“The PH government needs to listen to what the people are saying and take a serious look at the economic issues and the cost of living of the people.” 

He said the government should work hard to ensure economic growth in the country instead of pulling opposition leaders to their corner. 

“The government needs to work harder to ensure economic growth in the country, instead of trying to pull members from the opposition into the PH/ Bersatu party,” he said. 

Former prime minister Najib Razak, who was very visible during BN’s campaign, also took a swipe at PH on social media. 

“BN won in Semenyih. I don’t know if next week whether the PH government will ‘knock’ on my door and ‘disturb’ me. I don’t know what other slander that will come out.” – March 3, 2019.