Mahkota by-election: Barisan Nasional retains Johor state seat with ...

Updated

Sep 28, 2024, 10:53 PM

Published

Sep 28, 2024, 09:26 PM

KUALA LUMPUR – Barisan Nasional (BN) retained its state seat in the Mahkota by-election in Johor on Sept 28 by a landslide margin, demonstrating its continued dominance in the southern Malaysian state.

According to the official results, BN’s first-time candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah, 40, won by a resounding 20,648 votes, garnering 27,995 votes, or about 79 per cent of the valid votes.

His Perikatan Nasional (PN) rival, 61-year-old former Johor state footballer Mohamad Haizan Jaafar, secured just 7,347 votes, representing about 21 per cent of the ballot.

After thanking the election machinery and “our friends in PH (Pakatan Harapan)”, Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said: “Thank you to the Chinese voters as well for giving us their strong support, as we won big in the Dorset district polling centre, where Barisan received 3,159 votes against Perikatan’s 1,040.”

BN, an alliance led by the Umno party, controls the Johor state government with its super majority of 40 of the 56 seats in the state assembly. It is also part of the federal unity government headed by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his coalition PH.

The opposition PN is dominated by Islamist party Parti Islam SeMalaysia and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.

According to the Election Commission, Mahkota has 66,318 registered voters, with Malays accounting for 54% followed by Chinese with 34% and Indians with 8%.

This time round, voter turnout was 54 per cent, lower than the 57 per cent recorded in the 2022 Johor state election.

Complacency by both BN and PH as well as expectations that BN would likely win were contributing factors for the lower voter turnout, said Universiti Malaya sociopolitical analyst Awang Azman Awang Pawi. 

At any rate, BN’s thumping victory is a clear rejection of PN’s religious and ethnic politics which focus on divisive narratives that may alienate more moderate and multicultural segments of the electorate, he added.

“Johor, being a more urbanised and progressive state compared to PN’s northern strongholds, is likely less receptive to extremist, ethno-religious narratives,” said Mr Awang.

Mr Halmie Azrie Abdul Halim, a senior analyst at political risk consultancy Vriens and Partners, said: “This win is a signal that Johor remains an Umno bedrock and that PN has no presence there.”

Still, before the votes were tallied, a BN win was not a surety.

While member parties of BN and PH – namely Umno and the Democratic Action Party (DAP) – had campaigned together in Mahkota to canvass support from the Malay and non-Malay voters, a war of words between their leaders earlier threatened to derail this effort.

Earlier in September, Umno youth chief Akmal Salleh had told DAP leader Teresa Kok to refrain from commenting on Islamic matters after she remarked on a proposal to make halal certification mandatory for Muslim-friendly eateries.

She later attributed the controversy over the matter to a misunderstanding by various parties.

Following their heated exchange, it was reported that Dr Akmal would have a limited role during the by-election campaign to prevent further division among the communities.

The latest by-election foray showing Mr Syed Hussien’s strong polling numbers reflects the electorate warming up to the BN-PH cooperation, especially among Umno and DAP supporters, say analysts.

The Mahkota result highlights the potential of the PH-BN alliance, including via Umno-DAP cooperation, which is “something that seemed unthinkable at the beginning of this decade”, said Mr Amir Fareed Rahim, strategy director of political risk consultancy KRA Group.

No doubt BN also got a boost from the personal appeal of its youthful, Mandarin-speaking candidate across all segments. The businessman said studying at a Chinese vernacular school helped him learn the language at a young age. Mr Syed Hussien’s teacher even gave him the Chinese name “Sai Fu Xing”, meaning “Star of Fortune”.

Despite the latest win, Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi said: “We have a lot of work to do.”

Mahkota has been contested since 2004, with BN winning four of the last five elections.

The Sept 28 by-election was called following the death of its assemblywoman Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain in August.

She had won the seat at the Johor state election in March 2022 by a majority of 5,166 votes in a four-cornered fight with candidates from PH, PN and Warisan.