Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh said earlier today that no political party has been able to obtain a simple majority after they failed to win 50 per cent out of 219 parliamentary seats in Malaysia’s 15th General Election (GE15).
As of 4 am today (20 Nov), Pakatan Harapan gained 76 seats, plus 5 seats won by its ally DAP (Democratic Action Party) Sarawak, along with Muda’s one seat, it has in total 82 seats.
Perikatan Nasional (PN) and PAS won 51 and 22 seats respectively, for a combined total of 73 seats.
Barisan Nasional (BN) with 30 seats, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) with 22 seats, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) with six seats, Warisan with three seats, Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) with one seat and two independents.
EC postponed the election for p017 Padang Serai parliamentary seat, and Tioman state seat, as PH candidate M Karupaiya for Padang Serai, and PN candidate Md Yunus Ramli for Tioman have passed away.
The election for P220 Baram parliamentary seat, was forced to be postponed due to bad weather conditions which resulted in EC personnel not being able to reach 11 polling stations whether via air, land or water transport. Some voters there have to brave the floodwaters to cast their ballots.
One Pahang state seat, N42 Tioman, also could not be announced, following the death of the PN candidate.
This means that the results of only 219 parliamentary seats will be announced.
Anwar And Muhyiddin Each Claims To Be Able To Form Government
Anwar Ibrahim, PH chairman has, however, claimed that PH has sufficient support to form a new government.
In a press conference at 3.30 am today, he shared that PH have entered into an understanding with other MPs, but would not reveal which parties the other MPs were from.
However, with a total of 73 seats at hand, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, PN Chairman also announced that their coalition is in the lead to form Malaysia’s new government.
Anwar refuted Muhyiddin’s claims, “It cannot be, it is impossible for him to claim so when we have it in writing. We have a majority, which means more than 111 seats.”
With a total of 73 seats at hand, Muhyiddin holds a leverage at hand to negotiate with other parties to form a new government.
However, Muhyiddin stressed that PN will not work with PH.
He claimed that the coalition will discuss with parties in Sabah and Sarawak to form a PN-led government.
Sarawak ruling coalition Gabungan Party Sarawak (GPS) has been able to secure 22 seats from 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak.
BN Suffered Biggest Defeat, Chairman Says GE15 Outcome A Huge Signal Sent By The People
With only 30 seats secured out of the contested 177 seats, BN is now facing its worst result in the coalition’s history.
Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, BN chairman and UMNO president, released a statement and said that BN has accepted and respects the people’s decision.
He said BN sees GE15’s outcome as a huge signal sent by the people to the coalition, “however, BN will remain committed to contributing to the formation of a stable government and is willing to set aside our sentimental differences.”
“BN always committed to seeing amiable ties between peninsular states and Sabah and Sarawak. We can be the bridge for this endeavour, “the statement said.
Zahid stressed that in the nearest future, BN would focus on restoring its political strength and understanding the needs of the new generation.
Zahid Win His Bagan Datuk Seat With Razor-Thin Majority
While successfully defending his Bagan Datuk seat with 16578 votes, 69-year-old Dr Ahmad Zahid only won with razor-thin majority of 348, while his opponent, Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar from PH won 16,230 votes and Dr Faiz from PN won 8,822 votes.
Before the Malaysian parliament dissolved last month, Zahid had advocated for an early election, saying that BN had no issue campaigning even during monsoon, and mocked the opposition parties who had opposed a monsoon election as being worried of losing in the GE.
He also previously called the current election as the “Mother of all Election”, and warned his BN component parties that they must win GE15 dominantly, or face more political prosecution.
The End Of Era: Dr M Lose In Langkawi Seat
GE 15 also marked an unexpected result as 96-year-old Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, only secured 4566 votes (6.8 per cent) andlost his deposit in Langkawi. Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah from PN won by 13,518 defeating Mahathir, BN and PH candidates.
Dr Mahathir led newly founded coalition Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA, or Homeland Movement), vowing to “save the nation”. GTA leading component party, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (PEJUANG) contested 115 seats but won none.
High Voter Turnout
There is a total of 21.17 million eligible voters in GE15.
According to an announcement by the Election Commission(EC) of Malaysia, turnout for the 21 million registered voters was at 70 per cent as of 4 pm. This means at least 14.82 million voters had cast their vote.
The figures do not include voters in the seats that have their results postponed.
The last election had a voter turnout of 82.32% or 12.29 million voters out of the 14.94 million eligible voters in 2018.
Youth voters are reckoned a political game changer in GE15.
Just December last year, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 years old and automatic voter registration was put in place by the passing of the Undi18 (“Vote at 18”) bill in 2019.
These amendments to Malaysia Constitution have led to the addition of 6.23 million new voters.
A total of 945 candidates from various parties are contested in 222 parliamentary seats of the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives), a historically highest number of candidates in Malaysia.
