Key GE15 battles, where some big names fell


Ravin Palanisamy

Two-time former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad leads the list of veteran politicians that have found themselves surplus to requirements following Saturday’s general election. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, November 22, 2022.

THE general election failed to provide a clearcut winner, with political coalitions still scrambling to cobble together agreements to form a viable government.

This election witnessed several key battles, where big names were defeated.

Some incumbents were ousted from their traditional stronghold seats, while others only managed a slim majority to secure re-election.

A total of 945 candidates stood, the most in Malaysian history.

Voting in Padang Serai was postponed to December 7, following the death of Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate and incumbent M. Karupaiya.

Meanwhile, election officials called off voting in Baram, Sarawak, due to bad weather and localised flooding.

The Malaysian Insight spoke to University Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia’s Tunku Mohar Tunku Mohd Mokhtar to get his views on some of the main talking points.

Tambun

Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Anwar Ibrahim triumphed, defeating incumbent Ahmad Faizal Azumu of Perikatan Nasional (PN) by a majority of 3,736.

Tunku Mohar: Anwar’s charisma and appeal as the prime minister candidate captured the imagination of voters in this constituency. Faizal‘s playful campaign didn’t work.

Bagan Datuk

Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was re-elected for his seventh term in parliament, winning by a wafer-thin margin of 348 votes, over PH’s Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin.

Tunku Mohar: Despite Zahid spending most of his time campaigning in this constituency, the small margin of victory came as a surprise. Shamsul Iskandar narrowly lost this, but this will have bolstered his reputation as a giant killer.

Gombak

In this closely watched seat, PH’s Amirudin Shari thumped incumbent Mohamed Azmin Ali, taking a 12,729-vote margin.

Azmin, currently PN’s election director, had won the past three elections in Gombak as a senior figure in PKR, before leading the Sheraton Move in February 2020 and jumping to Bersatu.

Tunku Mohar: Gombak shows that voters don’t accept a traitor. PKR’s strategy in nominating Amirudin worked.

Ampang

PH’s Rodziah Ismail clinched the parliamentary seat, leaving incumbent Zuraida Kamaruddin losing her deposit.

The win proves that Ampang is very much a PKR seat, with Rodziah claiming 29,681 votes.

Tunku Mohar: While Zuraida was expected to lose, her loss of deposit was rather surprising. This is another case of voters punishing a traitor.

Langkawi

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad stood for re-election as the leader of Pejuang, having been ousted from Bersatu.

The 97-year-old was defeated by PN’s Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah, who clinched 13,518 out of 25,463 votes.

This was the nonagenarian’s first electoral defeat in 53-years. Dr Mahathir also held the world record for being the oldest prime minister.

Tunku Mohar: I think Dr Mahathir lost because of the PAS wave in Kedah. Furthermore, unlike in the 2018 general election, Dr Mahathir wasn’t leading a strong coalition. His party is too new for the voters.

Gua Musang

Another big name to have been shown the door was Umno stalwart Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, losing a constituency he has served for close to 50 years (12 terms).

The longest-serving lawmaker lost by a razor-thin margin of 163 votes to PAS’s Azizi Abu Naim.

Tunku Mohar: It seemed that Kelantan folk had decided to give their votes to PAS, regardless of the candidate.

Kuala Selangor

PH’s Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, the former health minister, beat hotly favoured BN candidate and caretaker finance minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz by a majority of 1,002 votes.

Tunku Mohar: Dzulkefly managed to defend the seat, partly because of PH’s strength in Selangor and his track record as health minister during PH’s 22-month administration. Tengku Zafrul‘s inexperience as a politician also contributed to his defeat.

Titiwangsa

BN’s Johari Abdul Ghani defeated his closest opponent, Khalid Abdul Samad of PH, by a 4,632-vote majority.

The former second finance minister’s victory meant he reclaimed a seat he lost in 2018, which was won by then PH candidate Rina Mohd Harun in a three-way fight, also by more than 4,000 votes.

Tunku Mohar: It’s a constituency that has shown that it can change its allegiance. Johari used Media Prima to promote him, and he succeeded.

Putrajaya

Bersatu vice president Radzi Jidin defeated incumbent Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to win the seat by 2,310 votes.  

Tengku Adnan had held the seat since it was first created in 2004.

Tunku Mohar: This is a Malay tsunami, and Tengku Adnan is tainted.

Kuala Nerus

Former PAS lawmaker Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali, who switched to BN shortly before the election, lost to PN’s Dr Alias Razak.

Alias, gathered 56,697 votes and took a convincing majority of 29,765.

Tunku Mohar: PAS’s extraordinary showing on the east coast resulted in it defeating all-comers.

Arau

Meanwhile in Perlis, the situation was a mirror of Kuala Nerus, where former BN lawmaker Shahidan Kasim won Arau as a PN candidate.

Shahidan, the former federal territories minister, was successfully re-elected with a majority of 23,216 votes, defeating rivals Rozabil Abd Rahman of BN and PH’s Fathin Amelina Fazlie.

Shahidan was first elected in Arau in 1986.

He went on to serve Umno in other constituencies before returning in 2013.

Tunku Mohar: Shahidan is not only a political personage, he is an institution. Umno’s greatest mistake was to remove his candidacy.

Bentong

PH’s Young Syefura Othman won the fight against former MCA president Liow Tiong Lai with a majority of 692 votes.

Liow had served the constituency from 1999 to 2018 but Young Syefura clinched the seat in a nail-biting contest.

Tunku Mohar: This is just another case of Chinese voters’ distrust of MCA.

Batu

The 10-way fight was the largest number of candidates competing for a single seat in the election.

PH’s P. Prabakaran, who ran as an independent in 2018, made a successful defence, gathering 45,716 votes, a handsome majority of 22,241 votes, over Azhar Yahya of PN in second place.

Prabakaran’s predecessor in Batu, former PKR vice president Tian Chua, ran as an independent but could only garner 4,603 votes.

Tunku Mohar: This is just another example of PH’s strength in urban and mixed constituencies.

In Saturday’s general election, PN and PAS won 51 and 22 seats respectively, for a combined total of 73 seats.

BN took 30 seats, while GPS claimed 22 seats and GRS scooped six.

Pakatan Harapan won 82 seats, while Warisan (3), Parti Bangsa Malaysia (1) and Independents (2) took the remaining seats. – November 22, 2022.


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