POLITICS: Winners and losers in the six state elections

As expected, the result of the six state polls is a draw.

To be exact, 3-3. Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional retained Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Penang while Perikatan Nasional kept Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.

Since it is a draw, can we say that no coalition or party won or lost?

When we examine the political math of the draw, there are winners and losers.

The big winner is Perikatan. It won big in Kedah (33 seats out of 36), Kelantan (43/45) and Terengganu (32/32) and it also made inroads in Pakatan-Barisan stronghold states.

Perikatan won 11 seats out of 40 in Penang.

The difference between Perikatan (22 seats) and Pakatan-Barisan (34) in Selangor is 12 seats. It denied the Pakatan-Barisan coalition a two-thirds majority.

It won five seats out of 36 in Negri Sembilan.

The total votes – especially among Malay voters – that Perikatan got increased, including in seats it lost.

In total, Perikatan won 146 seats, and its Malay wave continues to gain momentum.

Another big winner is DAP.

It won all the 47 seats it contested except for one (in Kedah). It was a clean sweep in Negri Sembilan (11 out of 11 seats contested), Penang (19/19) and Selangor (15/15).

The big loser is Umno and its president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

It faced a wipeout in Kedah and Terengganu. It managed to win one seat in Kelantan and two each in Penang and Selangor.

However, it did well in Negri Sembilan, winning 14 out of the 17 seats it contested.

After his two disastrous election outings (the 15th General Election in 2022 and the six state polls) as Umno president, is Ahmad Zahid in trouble?

There will be pressure on his leadership. But, it is unlikely the Umno president will buckle under pressure.

The other big losers are Muda and PSM. They lost their deposits; the results show that there is no room for third-force politics. Malaysia is divided between Pakatan-Barisan and Perikatan, and those in the middle get squeezed.

It is also a loss for Malaysians romanticising a Move Forward Party movement in which the young party won the most seats in the Thai polls.

It is a draw result for Prime Minister and Pakatan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

His unity coalition won the states that it governed. However, Pakatan-Barisan is losing substantial Malay votes. The Anwar Wave could not stop the opposition bloc from making big inroads in Penang and Selangor.

With more Malays voting for Perikatan, his unity government will be under pressure as the Opposition will say that GE15 and the six state polls are referendums and that the Malays are with them.

Despite the draw, Perikatan is still determined to oust the Anwar government.

For the opposition bloc, in terms of total result, it got 146, while Pakatan-Barisan took 99 out of 245 seats up for grabs.

For them, the result is not 3-3 but 146-99.

The next battleground is the Johor by-elections for the Pulai parliamentary seat and Simpang Jeram state seat.