PRN2023: No Surprises In State Governments
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There were no surprises in terms of the formation of new state governments for the six states which had their elections today.
PAS under its Perikatan Nasional (PN) banner remains the state government in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.
KEDAH
In Kedah, Barisan Nasional (BN) was totally annihilated as it lost all 15 seats it contested in. Pakatan Harapan (PH) managed to win three seats; Kota Darul Aman, Bakar Arang and Sidam. PN secures a two-third majority with 33 seats.
PH suffered a massive blow in Kedah as their numbers in the state legislative assembly saw a significant drop. After losing several seats when Bersatu left the coalition after GE14, and several assemblymen leaving to join other parties, including Bersatu, PH was left with 12.
This has now dwindled to three as Teh Swee Leong retained the Kota Darul Aman seat for PH, Adam Loh won in Bakar Arang while Bau Wong managed to bring the seat back to PH after its incumbent Robert Ling who won in 2018 left PKR to join Bersatu in 2020.
BN’s presence was almost non-existent in Kedah after the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018 where they only managed to win three seats; Sungai Tiang, Guar Chempedak and Bandar Bharu.
They lost Sungai Tiang, previously held by Suraya Yaacob, to PN tonight by 17,099 votes. Mohamad Fadzil was unsuccessful in his attempt to retain the seat for BN as PN’s Razak Khamis secured 27,154.
BN also lost Guar Chempedak by 12,109 votes. Its candidate Abdul Paris Abdul Hamid only managed 5,157 votes.
In Bandar Bharu, BN was defeated by 11,577 votes. Nuraini Yusoff failed to retain the seat previously held by Norsabrina Mohd Noor after only managing 7,750 votes.
Controversial figure Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Noor was among the most watched candidates this time around. Not only did he manage to retain the Jeneri seat, but his majority saw a significant increase from a mere 2,455 to 16,050.
PENANG
The combination of PH and BN is able to comfortably form the Penang state government with 29 seats.
Although PH is still the state government, their numbers have dropped. In 2018, PH secured 37 seats of the 40 seats in Penang.
While Bersatu is no longer with PH, they only managed to win two seats at the time. The combination of PKR, DAP and Amanah was able to take home 35 seats.
The same combination has dropped to 27, while BN managed to take Bertam away from PN and keep Sungai Acheh previously won by PKR in the PH-BN fold.
KELANTAN
PAS dominates the state assembly with 43 seats. PH and BN each won one seat; Kota Lama and Galas, respectively.
This is a significant improvement for the Islamist party as they lost 8 seats to BN in 2018.
BN was only able to retain Galas by 3,337 votes.
As for PH, it can be said they levelled up as they had zero representation in the Kelantan state legislative assembly during the last term but they now have one.
Dr Hafidzah Mustaqim defeated PAS’ Datuk Zamri Ismail albeit with a slim margin of 202 votes.
TERENGGANU
PAS made a clean sweep in Terengganu, winning all 32 state seats. This is another success story for the party as BN previously held 10 seats while PH had none.
SELANGOR
In a nail-biting fight in Selangor, PH and BN is able to form the state government, ousting PN with a simple majority by securing 34 seats. PN managed 22 seats.
Several hot seats in the state went to PN with its Selangor chief Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali ousting PH’s Juwairiya Zulkifli in Hulu Kelang with a slim majority of 1,617 votes. PH also lost Sungai Kandis to PN by 167 votes.
BN’s position in the state deteriorated further from having won four seats in 2018 to only two this time around. It retained Sungai Air Tawar and won Dusun Tua which was previously held by DAP.
NEGERI SEMBILAN
BN’s only decent showing was in Negeri Sembilan where it won 14 seats but even then it’s a drop compared to the 16 it won in 2018.
Together with PH, they are able to form the state government with 31 seats.
The “PN wave” appears to have been poor in Negeri Sembilan as they only managed to win five seats.
So, what’s the score?
In short, the score tonight is 3-3.
What is interesting to note is that PN, as a coalition using its own logo, only won in Kedah where PAS members also contested using the PN logo.
In Kelantan and Terengganu, PN candidates contested using the PAS logo.
In Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, PN candidates contested using the PN logo.
Public holidays
As announced previously, the results tonight mean Kedah will have a public holiday tomorrow and Selangor will have a public holiday on Monday.
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