No clear winner, says EC chief

 

The 15th general election (GE15), the most intense the country had ever faced, ended in a hung Parliament with no party securing a clear majority to form the new federal government.

Pakatan Harapan won 82 seats and Perikatan Nasional (PN) 73 seats as of 4.30am when the Election Commission (EC) declared the results for 219 of the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.

PN, in its maiden contest in a general election, performed surprisingly well to take all 14 parliamentary seats in Kelantan and all eight seats in Terengganu using the PAS logo, besides forming the state government in Perlis by securing 14 of the 15 state seats.

BN, having set out with confidence to retake the government in Putrajaya, suffered the worst defeat in its political history when it won only 30 seats out of the 178 it contested.

Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) won 22 seats, improving from the 18 it held in the last Parliament; Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), six seats; Warisan, three; Independents, two; and Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM), one. Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA), in its debut, failed to win any seat.

EC chairperson Abdul Ghani Salleh (above), in a press conference at 5am, said no party had secured a majority of 50 percent of the 219 seats declared.

The election for the Padang Serai parliamentary seat in Kedah was postponed to Dec 7 after the Harapan candidate, incumbent M Karupaiya, died on Nov 16.

Voting in 11 polling centres in the parliamentary constituency of Baram in Sarawak was suspended due to adverse weather while the EC could not announce the result for the Kota Marudu parliamentary seat, also due to the weather.

The outcome reflected the predictions of several political analysts that no party would secure a clear majority and that a multi-coalition government would be the result.

The enforcement of the Constitutional (Amendment) (No. 3) Act 2022, or anti-party hopping law, on Oct 5 prohibited winning candidates from switching political parties to make up the numbers for a majority.

Under the Act, a member of parliament will lose his or her seat on switching parties. However, the law does not prohibit any coalition from partnering with another coalition or party to form a multi-coalition government.

PN chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin, who retained his Pagoh parliamentary seat, said the coalition is prepared to collaborate with any other party, except PH, to form a clean and stable government, and that the party would have discussions with leaders of parties from Sabah and Sarawak soon.

Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim said the coalition had reached an agreement with several parties to secure a simple majority to form the new federal government.

BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in a statement that the coalition accepted and respected the people’s decision.

- Bernama