THE Perikatan Nasional (PN) brand failed to make an impression in the Malacca elections despite driving a campaign based on its chairman and former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

It stood in all 28 seats but won only two – Sg Udang and Bemban – thanks to Bersatu, while two other PN components, PAS and Gerakan, failed to win a single seat.

The two seats make it status quo in terms of seats for Bersatu, which won Paya Rumput and Telok Mas in 2018, but lost in these constituencies this time around.

PN’s candidate in Sg Udang, Dr Mohd Aleef Yusof, won by a majority of 530 votes, netting 7,789 votes over three other candidates.

Aleef beat Barisan Nasional’s (BN) candidate, who is Dewan Negara deputy president Mohamad Ali Mohamad, who garnered 6,259 votes.

Sg Udang is a big haul for PN as it has two military camps, the Terendak Camp and Sg Udang Camp, where voters traditionally support BN.

In the Bemban state seat, PN candidate Dr Mohd Yadzil Yaakub won 4,211 votes, obtaining a 328-vote margin over four other candidates.

Yadzil is a PN heavyweight, being the coalition’s Malacca elections director, a top Malacca Bersatu leader and head of Bersatu’s Yasin division.

One of his rivals in Bemban was Malacca DAP chief Tey Kok Kiew.

In a gamble for DAP, Tey was moved to Bemban from the safe seat of Bandar Hilir, where Tey had been a three-time assemblyman.

Here, Yadzil’s closest rival, however, was BN candidate Koh Chin Han who won 3,883 votes. Two independent candidates, Ng Choon Koon and Azmi Kamis, lost their deposits when they only got 850 and 130 votes, respectively.

Woman CM candidate loses to BN heavyweight

PN’s intention of having the first woman chief minister, not only in Malacca but in any state, through federal deputy minister Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, also came to naught when she lost her bid for the Tg Bidara state seat.

Mas Ermieyati, who was formerly with Umno before hopping over to Bersatu, lost to BN’s Ab Rauf Yusoh by a margin of 364 votes.

Ab Rauf is a BN big-timer, being Malacca Umno and BN chief, and also speaker of the state legislative assembly.

Another top Bersatu candidate, Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen, who is Malacca PN chief, also lost to BN’s Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman in the Telok Mas seat. This was a seat Bersatu won in 2018.

Rafiq had been moved over to Telok Mas from Paya Rumput, which he won in 2018.

This time, Paya Rumput was won by BN’s Rais Yasin whose main rival was PKR’s Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin.

PAS weak in Malacca

In this election, Bersatu contested in 15 of the 28 seats. Its allies, PAS and Gerakan, contested eight and five seats, respectively.

PAS did not win in any of the eight seats it contested, namely, Kuala Linggi, Taboh Naning, Durian Tunggal, Kelebang, Bukit Katil, Duyong, Serkam and Merlimau.

The zero showing confirmed the Islamist party’s weak standing in Malacca, where it has never won a seat except once, in Bukit Baru, in the 13th general election when it was part of Pakatan Rakyat. And even then, only by a 48-vote majority.

In GE14, when it stood alone, PAS contested 24 out of Malacca’s 28 seats but won nothing.

This time, PAS came within a whisker of winning the Serkam seat for PN, but lost to the BN candidate by a 79-vote margin.

It is learnt that there are PAS members in Malacca who are unhappy that the Islamist party had joined forces with Bersatu under PN, as some PAS preferred their party’s pact with Umno under Muafakat Nasional (MN).

Malacca PAS commissioner Kamarudin Sidek had even admitted that there were a few party members who helped the BN campaign in the Ayer Molek seat, but brushed it off as an isolated issue.

Kamarudin lost his bid for the Duyong seat to BN candidate Mohd Noor Helmy Abu Halen, who won by a 200-vote majority.

Umno and PAS formed MN after BN lost GE14 and the federal government to Pakatan Harapan. But PAS went on to formally join Muhyiddin’s PN coalition despite being in MN with Umno.

Gerakan, meanwhile, had quit BN in 2018 and was in the political wilderness until it joined PN in February this year, when the coalition was still in federal government. – November 21, 2021.