PEJUANG focused too much on corruption issues when campaigning in the recent Johor state elections and failed to address crucial matters for voters such as unemployment, its chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

The former prime minister spoke about his party’s failure to win a single seat in the March 12 polls, saying it had identified several factors that led to its defeat.

“We will look for ways to improve ourselves in the future. We are not going to repeat the same mistake,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

“We focused too much on corruption issues but did not address people’s issues such as not having enough food to eat or that some were chased out from their homes because they don’t have money to pay rent.

“We didn’t touch on these issues and voters are not so much interested in corruption. These are some of the reasons we have identified during our meeting today.”

Pejuang contested 42 seats in Johor and lost in all of them. Its campaign slanted heavily towards not returning the vote to “kleptocrats”, in reference to Umno’s leadership, some of whom are facing graft trials.

The election was won by Barisan Nasional (BN), with 40 out of 56 seats.

Pejuang did not align with Pakatan Harapan (PH), which won 11 seats, while PKR, which used its own logo, won one. 

PH ally Muda won one seat while Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) won three seats.

Like Pejuang, none of the other new parties, including PKR splinter Parti Bangsa Malaysia, won any seats. All their candidates lost their deposits.

Asked if Pejuang may join forces with other opposition parties to face BN in the 15th general election, Dr Mahathir said the proposal will be discussed by the party leadership.

He played down BN’s supermajority win in Johor, saying the coalition won the minority vote. Voter turnout had been very low, at 54%.

“I am aware that we lost in Johor because the opposition is not united. If not, we could have won the polls,” said Dr Mahathir.

“On working together (with other opposition parties), that will be discussed by the party. 

“If we look at the result, BN won 35% of the votes, which was very small. They are just a minority government. In fact, they shouldn’t be allowed to form the state government because they are led by corrupt leaders.” – March 18, 2022.