PERIKATAN Nasional’s win in Padang Serai does not mean that the voters have rejected the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional unity government, said Mahfuz Omar.

“There is nothing to indicate the PH candidate was rejected because of this,” he said.

“If the people had truly rejected us, BN would have failed to retain the Tioman state seat,” he was quoted as saying on news portal Free Malaysia Today.

The Kedah PH chairman attributed the coalition’s loss of the seat to the “Malay wave” that swept Malaysia in the general election.

PN’s Azman Nasrudin won the Padang Serai parliamentary seat in Kedah by a margin of 16,260 votes.

Azman took 51,637 votes to PH’s Mohamad Sofee Razak’s 35,377.

Barisan Nasional’s C. Sivarraajh received 2,983 votes, while Independent candidate Sreanandha Rao received 846 votes, Pejuang’ Hamzah Abd Rahman collected 424 votes and Warisan’s Bakhri Hashim 149.

Polling for the seat on November 19 had to be postponed following the death of PH candidate M. Karupaiya.

However, BN retained the Tioman state seat in Pahang in the election that was held on the same day. Polling for the Tioman state seat was also deferred following the death of PN candidate Md Yunus Ramli.

BN candidate Johari Hussain won Tioman by a slender 573 votes.

The incumbent garnered 8,080 votes while his Perikatan Nasional rival Nor Idayu Hashim collected 7,509.

PH candidate Fadzli Ramly had dropped out of the contest after BN and PH agreed a no-contest deal.

Mahfuz said PN had campaigned on issues of race and religion, which had led it to snare many seats in the parliament.

“We have to look at how to overcome this. We need to be ready ahead of the Kedah elections,” he said

Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor and Negri Sembilan are set to hold their state elections next year. – December 8, 2022.