IT DOES not look like any political coalition can form a government based on the outcome of 173 seats announced by the Election Commission as of 2.15am.

With both Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional neck-and-neck with the number of seats won, it seems certain that the nation will be seeing a hung parliament as a result.

PH has won 59 seats, followed by PN with 57. Gabungan Parti Sarawak has 22 while Barisan Nasional, which called for an early election on the basis that it could win, only has 25 seats.

Gabungan Parti Sabah has four and others have six seats.

A total of 47 seats are still not announced. Even if PH wins them all, the most it would have is 106, short of the six seats needed to form a majority.

The results of only 220 seats are being tabulated as the polling at Padang Serai has been postponed to December 7 due to the death of a candidate as well as polling at some streams in Baram, Sarawak due to bad weather.

BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has conceded the coalition’s defeat in the GE, saying that it was “willing to set aside previous differences in sentiments” to ensure a stable government can be formed, suggesting that it was ready to form a government in partnership with other parties.

Zahid also said BN accepted the clear signals sent by Malaysians to the coalition.

In the run up to the elections yesterday, pollsters had predicted that an Anwar Ibrahim-led PH would be the big winner, but without being able to form the government on its own.

They also predicted that PN would perform better than BN, but the results so far are showing that the Muhyiddin Yassin-led pact of Bersatu, PAS and Gerakan had managed to convince voters, especially in the Malay heartland, to support them.

Without any coalition holding strong numbers on their own, the coalitions from the Borneo states are set to be kingmakers. – November 20, 2022.