PN making its presence felt in Selangor with both slim and big majority wins

SHAH ALAM - The Selangor 2023 State Election has resulted to Perikatan Nasional’s penetration into the Pakatan Harapan’s stronghold, Selangor. The win also showed PH’s collaboration with Barisan Nasional (BN) may not be as convincing as the Unity Government assumed, with PN securing a total of 146 seats from the six states contested. PH and BN obtained only 80 and 19 seats respectively.

In Selangor, PN secured 22 seats leaving PH-BN with only 34 seats, grabbing PH's comfortable two thirds majority. Previously back in the 2018 polls, PH alone won 51 seats, BN four seats and Pas one. Two years later, the infamous Sheraton Move took place establishing PN into the fold.

The political crisis in 2020 led to Bersatu, Pas and Gerakan as well as Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia and Sabah Progressive Party gaining power in the Malaysian government. This new unit, seen as a mere transitional phase during the Covid-19 pandemic and consistently labelled as a weak bunch, shocked many when they came out victorious in the 15th General Election last year with 74 seats. Many spectators predicted they would not make it pass 30.

Looking into yesterday’s results in Selangor, of the 22 seats they won, PN clinched huge majorities in two seats - Sungai Burong and Sabak. In Sungai Burong, motivator Dr Zamri Mantop polled 15,447 votes against his opponent Ustaz Khir (BN) who garnered 8,605 votes.

In Sabak, Ustaz Sallehen Mukhyi had 13,431 votes, while his rival Cikgu Samad Hashim from PH had 9,216 votes.

PN mostly won with slim majorities in the other seats with the lowest at 30 votes for the Taman Medan seat where former Seberang Jaya state assemblyman Dr Afif Bahardin defeated Ahmad Akhir Pawan Chik, the incumbent.

Another razor-thin margin was made by Hilman Idham who officially managed to retain his Gombak Setia seat with only 58 votes majority. He polled 30,299 votes over BN’s Megat Zulkarnain Omardin (30,241 votes) and independent candidate Mohamed Salim Mohamed Ali (1,076 votes).

Meanwhile, daughter of former Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister, Nurul Noh Omar sweetened her debut at Permatang with a slim majority of only 1,728 votes to defeat experienced PKR member and PH candidate Yahya Mat Sahri who had 11,122.

Last night, Selangor PH chairman Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the unity coalition was considering mounting a legal challenge to annul the results in seats narrowly won by PN.

He was quoted that there were several matters that could be considered for an election petition in their legal team including the issue of unreturned ballot papers in Sungai Kandis.

He also highlighted the “extremely narrow margins” of vote in Gombak Setia and Taman Medan as questionable.

However, he said he will leave it to the legal team to take the necessary action.