Aminuddin: We lost five seats due to low turnout

SEREMBAN: The Negri Sembilan Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional pact may have had the most successful outing in Saturday’s polls in six states but losing five seats to Perikatan Nasional was something its leaders had least expected.

State Pakatan chairman Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun said the defeat in Bagan Pinang, Gemas, Serting, Paroi and Labu were difficult to fathom as these had been its strongholds.

He attributed these losses to a low voter turnout.

“Many didn’t come out to vote although they had returned for the weekend.

“We should take a cue from this as they probably thought it was not important for them to vote again as they only did so in November (last year),” he said.

Pakatan-Barisan won 31 of the 36 seats contested in the state. (In 2018, Pakatan clinched 20 seats while Barisan took the remaining 16.)

In Saturday’s poll, Pakatan won 17 of the 19 seats that it contested in, while Barisan bagged 14 of 17 seats.

Under the Perikatan banner, Bersatu contested in 17 seats, PAS (13) and Gerakan (six).

The Pakatan-Barisan pact had voiced their confidence in making a clean sweep in the state in view of the big names on their side such as former Mentri Besar and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, Transport Minister Anthony Loke, Aminuddin and state Umno chief Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias.

All four won in their respective constituencies.

On the contrary, the biggest name in Perikatan’s arsenal was former deputy minister Datuk Eddin Syazlee Shith who had previously served as Kuala Pilah MP for one term.

Aminuddin, who is caretaker Mentri Besar and won the Sikamat seat for a fourth term, said although the party lost five seats, it still received solid support from voters.

“The army votes in Bagan Pinang and Gemas may have been a factor why we lost these two seats.

“Two more, Paroi and Labu were semi-urban seats while Serting has many Felda schemes.

“This serves as a warning to us and we should quickly study what caused it,” he said.

However, Aminuddin said that the pact’s victory in the grey areas of Ampangan and Lenggeng showed it was accepted by voters.

“Initially, we thought it would be tough to defend Ampangan as some members had rejected our candidate in place of the incumbent,” he said.

“Similarly in Lenggeng, some Amanah members had decided not to vote for Barisan after the seat was taken over by Umno but eventually, our election machinery agreed to set aside these differences for the good of all.”

Jalaluddin said he was humbled by the two-thirds victory.

“Although we lost five seats, that is not a problem for the unity government.

“We got solid support from all races including the Orang Asli,” he said, adding that based on early findings, the losses in its strongholds of Bagan Pinang and Gemas were caused by a swing in army votes.

State Perikatan secretary Nazree Yunus described the five seat-win as a victory although it failed to achieve its target of taking over the state government.

“Bear in mind that these five seats are in different parliamentary constituencies. We now have representatives in five of the eight parliamentary constituencies in the state when we had none in the past,” he said.

Nazree said Perikatan also managed to win seats from Umno, PKR and Amanah and this was a sign of greater things to come.

He said Perikatan’s 78-vote loss in Juasseh and another 135-vote defeat in Kota was also an indication that if the voter turnout was higher, it could have also bagged these seats.

“We also lost a few more seats by a couple of hundred votes. The damage could have been greater for Pakatan-Barisan,” he said.

Perikatan lost Ampangan Seri Menanti, Sungai Lui, Klawang, Palong, Senaling, Jeram Padang and Lenggeng by a slim majority of between 329 and 693 votes.

“Perikatan would have secured between 19 and 21 seats if the voter turnout had reached 80%,” he said.

State PAS commissioner and Perikatan deputy chief Rafiei Mustapha said the win in five seats showed that Perikatan now has a foothold in Negri Sembilan.

“Now that we have won five seats, we are here to stay,” he said.

“For the next five years, we will have five Perikatan assemblymen in the state assembly from having none previously,” he said.

He said a low voter turnout had probably “saved” Pakatan-Barisan from a bigger embarrassment.

Citing an example, he said the turnout in Pilah where he contested was 62% although the average turnout in the state was 68%.

Rafiei lost in a straight fight by 1,079 votes against Pakatan’s Noor Zunita Begum Mohd Ibrahim.

He believed that the lack of big names as candidates was another reason why the party did not fare better.