MIC – the ethnic Indian component of Barisan Nasional (BN) – continued its dreadful track record at the polls by winning just one parliamentary seat from the 10 candidates it put forward for the general election.

One seat, Padang Serai, has yet to be decided after Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate M. Karupaiya died of a heart-attack last week.

MIC’s C. Sivarraajh is a candidate, with polls rescheduled for December 7, but he is not expected to win.

The party’s showing in yesterday’s polls is worse than that of 2018 when it initially won two of nine seats contested: Tapah and Cameron Highlands.

However, the Election Court nullified the Cameron Highlands result seat due to corruption and Umno brought in its own candidate for the re-match.

MIC’s sole winner yesterday was M. Saravanan, who retained Tapah by 5,064 votes over Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Saraswathy Kandasami, with Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Muhammad Yadzan Mohammad in third place with 12,115 votes.

Meanwhile, in Sungai Siput, PH’s Kesavan Subramaniam pipped MIC president S.A. Vigneswaran to the post with a slim majority of 1,846 votes, dashing MIC’s hopes of regaining this seat.

In Port Dickson, MIC’s P. Kamalanathan was trashed by Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun, who romped home with a vote margin of 23,601.

In Telok Intan, PH’s Nga Kor Ming secured a convincing 15,169 majority win over PN candidate Zainol Fadzi Paharudin with MIC’s T. Murugiah a further 5,660 votes further back.

In Hulu Selangor, MIC’s candidate Mohan Thangarasu came third of six candidates with 27,050 votes.

The seat was won by PN’s Mohd Hasnizan Harun with a 1,562-vote margin over second-placed PH candidate Sathia Prakash.

MIC was also third in Batu, where PH’s P. Prabakaran saw off nine challengers. The Indian party secured 11.9% of the vote.

Segamat saw PH’s Yuneswaran Ramaraj defeating MIC’s Ramasamy Muthusamy by 5,669 votes, with two other candidates much further back.

In Kota Raja, PH and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu brushed aside his opponents by winning the seat with 73,998 majority.

MIC’s D. Kajendran only managed third receiving 22,225 votes, coming behind second-placed Mohamed Diah Baharum of PN, who got 49,308 votes.

The party’s wanita chief, Mohana Muniandy lost her fight in Kuala Langat, also coming third best behind PN’s Ahmad Yunus Hairi, who won with 52,867 votes and PH’s Manivanan Godwin (51,034), while Mohana only obtained 18,685 votes.

Earlier today, Election Commission (EC) chairman Abdul Ghani Salleh announced that no political party or coalition had won a simple majority.

PH had won 76 seats, with coalition member DAP in Sarawak winning five seats, plus Muda one seat, for a total of 82 seats.

PN and PAS won 51 and 22 seats, respectively, for a combined total of 73 seats.

GPS claimed 22 seats, with GRS (6), Warisan (3), Parti Bangsa Malaysia (1) and Independents (2) also registering wins. – November 20, 2022.