DESPITE losing the Seri Setia state seat to Pakatan Harapan, Islamist party PAS scored significant gains in yesterday’s by-election, as it more than doubled its votes, thanks to a pact with Barisan Nasional.

While PH candidate Halimey Abu Bakar won the seat by 4,027 votes, garnering 13,725 votes, Dr Halimah Ali (PAS) received 9,698 votes, a significant increase from its 4,563 votes in the 14th general election.

BN did not contest in this by-election, choosing instead to campaign for PAS. In the Sg Kandis by-election, PAS supported the former ruling coalition’s candidate.

Out of the 2,138 early voters, consisting of mainly police and armed forces personnel, PAS took the lion’s share of 59.9%. This is more than double compared with the 25.62% of 2,022 early voters in GE14.

PH, on the other hand, only had a marginal increase from 34.77% to 40.41%.

Based on the results, it showed that the BN machinery had a major influence on the increase in votes for PAS.

International Islamic University Malaysia political science lecturer Dr Tunku Mohar Mohd Mokhtar said there were signs the cooperation would benefit both parties.

“The total votes for PAS increased to almost double and votes from polling stations that BN previously won shifted to PAS,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

However, he said the voter turnout may have been lower from Sg Kandis as voters felt that the by-election would not change the political landscape as well as due to electoral fatigue.

The Seri Setia by-election yesterday recorded a low voter turnout of 44.1% of the constituency’s total of 53,492 voters.

Institute Darul Ehsan research senior manager Khairul Ariffin said the redelineation exercise might have also contributed to the low turnout rate.

“For 14 years and three general elections, voters were voting at the same polling stations and seats until the redelineation.

“But in the 2018 exercise, Seri Setia had additional polling stations from two different seats – Kota Anggerik and Kota Damansara. While this may not look like a lot, it involved moving voters from 23 localities from Kota Anggerik and 71 localities in the case of Kota Damansara.

“When voters are unsure about the seats they are voting in, they don’t come out,” he said.

He added that in GE14, voters were determined to “push out” BN, which led to a high turnout.

However, in this by-election, he said many may feel secure by the change in government that had taken place and their votes would not affect the current administration.

“The last reason is due to the long weekend, as many of the houses campaigners visited (on Friday) were empty.” – September 9, 2018.