By Nizam Zain
KUALA LUMPUR – The success of Barisan Nasional (BN) in the 15th Melaka State Election was not an insignificant win with a low voters turnout of merely 61 percent.
The Communications Director of Penggerak Komuniti Negara (PKN) Negeri Sembilan, Mustafa Kamal Abdul Rahman said that the voters turnout was dominated by BN voters who are categorized as ‘white vote’.
“There are about 30 to 35 percent of BN white votes from the total electors in a state assembly.
“BN managed to manipulate the situation, the concerns of voters to head out to vote due to Covid-19 and there were not many young voters (channel 4, 5, 6 and 7) who showed up compared to the 14th General Election (GE14).
“Thus, it is not surprising that the two conditions gave a huge advantage for BN to dominate most of the state assembly seats, although 12 of them only had a minor majority,” he told MalaysiaGazette today.
He also did not deny that the strategy of BN in marking & targeting voters one week before the polling day had successfully given advantage to the party to win two thirds in style on 20 November.
He revealed that BN brought between 56 to 68 percent of their white voters at each state assembly to the polling stations on the polling day.
“However, some BN white voters’ rate at several state assembly could not save its candidates, such as in Bukit Katil, Bemban and Serkam. Nevertheless, in Serkam, BN’s candidate won the election with a slim majority of 79 votes.
“Despite winning 21 state assemblies, BN only won comfortably at five state assemblies with a majority of more than 2,000 votes. Meanwhile, four state assemblies had a majority of less than 2,000 votes in Kuala Linggi (1,836), Taboh Naning (1,825), Rim (1,327) and Sungai Rambai (1,027).
“BN only added two state assemblies to win comfortably, compared to GE14. Meanwhile, in GE14, BN won comfortably with over 2,000 votes in Tanjung Bidara, Serkam and Sungai Udang. This round, it won comfortably in Merlimau (3,248), Lendu (3,104), Asahan (2,993), Ayer Molek (2,802) and Telok Mas (2,076).
He said, it was even more shocking after two UMNO strong forts, Tanjung Bidara and Sungai Udang have been breached by Perikatan Nasional (PN).
“The candidate from PN, Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin led Tanjung Bidara in the beginning, however, BN won the seat at the final moment with a slim majority of over 300 votes. It recorded a sharp decline of majority votes compared to GE14.
“Meanwhile, in Sungai Udang, where the party was never threatened since GE11 (2004), they lost the seat to the candidate from Bersatu-PN, with a majority of over 500 votes. Interestingly, the early voters (Terendak Camp, Masjid Tanah Camp) favoured PN,” he said.
“If the voters turnout rate in the Melaka election was more than 61 percent and achieved the target of Election Commission (EC) of 75 percent, perhaps, a different scenario would have happened.
“There is a huge possibility that the BN component parties, MCA and MIC would not win the seats in Klebang, Gadek and Machap Jaya.
“UMNO would also win less than 10 state assembly seats as 12 of its seats had a majority of less than 1,000 votes,” he said.
BN’s dependency on the white vote bloc with a low turnout rate had helped the party win in style insignificantly.
“It is important for the younger voters in channel 4 to 7 to balance and be the significant determinant for the next democracy fiesta,” he said, adding that the component parties in PN, especially PAS and Bersatu has shown its strength in the Melaka election as they garnered an increase of popular votes compared to GE14.
“PAS’s presence in PN has been proven through the popular votes in seven our of eight state assemblies,” he said.
PAS is strong when it is in the main coalition of the Federal Government component, thus, an increase of popular votes between 34 to 75 percent in the seven state assemblies verified that the voters are confident with PAS’s presence in PN.
“The competition in Serkam is a dramatic example in the increment of popularity of PAS. It increased from 3,423 votes (GE14) to 4,959 votes in the current Melaka polls. It’s an additional 45 percent. The candidate from PAS only lost 79 votes to the candidate from BN.
“Bersatu maintained two seats in Melaka, at different areas. They won Paya Rumput and Telok Mas in GE14, however, they now win at UMNO’s strong fort Sungai Udang and the DAP-PH’s strong fort in Bemban. It is also an unexpected dramatic political record that shocked BN.
“Without doubt, BN played the sentiment that PN would not win a single seat, however, Bersatu contributed to the first win for PN in Melaka,” he added. -MalaysiaGazette
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