BARISAN Nasional decided to concede defeat early the night of May 9 last year – even before the votes were fully counted – because its leaders agreed there was no way to hold on to power, said Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
There were suggestions from BN leaders for Najib Razak to form a coalition with other parties to try to keep Putrajaya, but the then prime minister was resigned to the fact that Pakatan Harapan was already far too many seats ahead.
“At that time, someone suggested an alternative pact with other parties but Najib decided that we needed to respect that voters had chosen to change government,” he told The Malaysian Insight.
The Umno president, who was then the incumbent deputy minister, somewhat contradictorily recalled “there were some efforts” but Najib felt that it was “too sudden and too late” by then to strike up any pact.
“We felt that the opposition parties had already formalised (their alliances) and I didn’t see any way for BN to partner them.”
Zahid said Islamist party PAS was floated as a possible partner, but “they only had 18 seats and it was not enough”.
“As such, although we could have formed a pact, there were just not enough seats.”
While Zahid may seem a little hazy on the events that overtook the BN leaders the night of the general election, he was clear on one thing: “There were no last-minute calls made to the opposition”.
On whether Najib telephoned PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, who was at the time a patient in Sg Buloh Hospital, Zahid said: “I wasn’t there at the time.”
Anwar said in an interview a week after PH snatched victory at the polls that a shattered Najib had called him twice on election night.
Several BN leaders were together on the night of May 9 when the decision was made to concede defeat, Zahid said.
Zahid started receiving news of the election results as early as 7pm while he was still in his parliamentary constituency in Bagan Datuk, Perak. Up until then, the six-term MP was feeling upbeat about BN’s chances.
“We were feeling good in my seat as we had managed to win the federal seat (Bagan Datuk) and the two state seats (Rungkup and Hutan Melintang).
“But I began to feel uneasy when I started to get unfavourable reports about other parliamentary seats.”
Traditionally, BN leaders on polling night gathered at the Umno headquarters at the PWTC to watch the results coming in before announcing that they had retained the government.
But this was an unusual night that would see the ritual broken.
“When I reached there around 9pm, I saw that the results had grown very unfavourable for BN.
“I was very concerned and when I called the PM, he decided not to appear in PWTC but to monitor the results at home.
“Some of us decided to watch the results at his house and when we saw that the opposition had obtained more than 100 seats and we had lost a number of state seats, we felt that we should prepare to transfer power and accept the voters’ decision.” – May 7, 2019.
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