Mat Sabu: Loss of Bersatu votes cost Harapan in Malacca polls

 

The loss of Bersatu as a partner in Pakatan Harapan had cost the coalition in the Malacca state election, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu said.

Mohamad (above) said Harapan will conduct a post-mortem to identify the causes of its setback, and he noted that among the causes was the lack of Bersatu votes the coalition garnered during the 2018 general election.

He said PN, comprising Bersatu, PAS and Gerakan, garnered 77,731 votes in the Malacca polls.

Mohamad, who is widely known as Mat Sabu, estimated that Bersatu was responsible for around 33,161 of PN's votes, after deducting 44,570 votes from PAS based on an estimation from the 2018 election.

"If the (Bersatu) votes are added to Harapan's popular votes of 114,457, it would have garnered 147,457 votes compared to BN's 122,741 votes.

"Therefore, it is clear that Harapan's defeat was not due to BN maintaining its votes but due to the betrayal by (Bersatu president) Muhyiddin Yassin and his group.

"Whatever it is, the people have decided and we need to conduct introspection for the good of the future," Mat Sabu added.

Landslide victory

It should be noted that if Bersatu had remained in Harapan, it would also be likely that PAS would have aligned with Umno in BN.

Based on this permutation, a BN-PAS coalition would have garnered an estimated 167,311 votes, still higher than the estimated 147,457 votes that Harapan and Bersatu collectively garnered.

BN, comprising Umno, MCA and MIC, won a landslide in last Saturday's Malacca state assembly election.

BN captured a total of 21 seats, with Umno contributing 18, MCA two and MIC one, giving the coalition a two-thirds majority in the 28-member State Legislative Assembly.

Harapan, which won in the Malacca polls in 2018, suffered a major setback, only retaining a third of the 15 seats it previously won.

DAP retained four out of its eight seats, PKR lost all three while Amanah kept one of two incumbent seats.

They also failed to retake two seats which Bersatu won for Harapan in 2018, prior to exiting the coalition. Both the seats fell to BN. - Mkini