Pelangai by-election: BN retains seat, PN gains votes
SHAH ALAM - Barisan Nasional (BN) retained the Pelangai seat in the by-election held yesterday, but the party's support failed to increase despite help from its new partner, Pakatan Harapan (PH).
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) political analyst Dr Abdul Aziz Azizam said the reduced majority indicates diminishing support for BN.
“It is not surprising that Umno-BN won here because it has been their stronghold for a long time, but what's interesting is the increase in votes for Perikatan Nasional (PN), which proves that the PN party is gradually gaining support at the grassroots level,” he said.
Abdul Aziz also said that the results show that PN is a force to be reckoned with and that BN will need to work hard to maintain its support in the next general election.
He added that logically, based on the previous general election, the BN-PH coalition was expected to weaken the PN movement, but the results show the opposite.
“However, the results of yesterday's by-election show victories for all parties.
“BN retained their seat there, PN successfully increased their vote count, and most importantly, to the people, the relatively high voter turnout indicates positive engagement with the democratic system,” he said.
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Social Sciences Professor Datuk Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said that it is difficult to predict the swing from PH to BN, but PN managed to secure more votes than BN, including reducing the majority.
He also said that BN's victory with a considerably big margin, despite the lower voter turnout compared to the 15th general election (GE15), shows that the party is still holding on to its stronghold in Pahang.
“Certainly PN managed to secure more votes compared to BN including to reduce the majority.
"There are many push and pull factors that need to be studied thoroughly to understand the voting pattern,” he said.
He added however, with lower turnout compared to the 15th general election (GE15), BN managed to win with a considerably big margin.
“It shows they are still holding to their stronghold and PN yet to manoeuvre further their green wave to this state,” he said.
Meanwhile, Singapore Institute of International Affairs senior fellow Dr Oh Ei Sun said that it would primarily be a fight between BN and PN in the next general election, with PH playing the role of a vote splitter.
“PH playing the role of vote splitter in favour of PN, as BN’s Malay votes have shifted to PN, and PH retains all the non-Malay votes.
“Hence, it cannot be simplistically calculated like that. PH captures all the non-Malay votes, nothing beyond that. BN and PN share the Malay votes,” he said.
Institut Kajian Etnik (KITA) Political Sociology Professor Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin said that PN or PH would have won or lost by a small margin due to Chinese voters that could split between BN and PH.
“It is obvious PN may have lost the seat but their popular votes have increased by about 50 per cent.
“It’s the 30 per cent Chinese votes that made the PH-BN candidate won,” he said.
Earlier, today Pahang PN chairman Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah said PN maintains a positive stance despite losing in the Pelangai by-election, citing the coalition's increased popular vote and youth support.
Saifuddin said PN's popular vote increased by 11.8 per cent compared to the GE15, while BN's increased by 3.5 per cent.
"However, when you combine the votes for BN and PH in GE15, it decreased by 11.5 per cent.
"The estimated Malay support for PN increased by 14 per cent, while BN decreased by 8 per cent.
"In conclusion, PN once again proves that we are capable of replacing Umno-BN and winning the hearts of the youth, while Umno-BN is seen relying on DAP-PH," he said.
