NO single party or coalition has clinched the magical number of 112 to form a simple majority in the Dewan Rakyat in the aftermath of Malaysia’s 15th General Election (GE15), hence the prospect of a ‘unity government’ looms.
Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh confirmed that there was no clear winner in the latest national poll after announcing the results of 219 of the 220 seats contested.
There were originally 222 seats to be contested in GE15 but polling was suspended for two seats, namely Padang Serai which has been rescheduled to Dec 7 following the death of one of its candidates (M. Karupaiya who passed away on Nov 16) while polling in the Baram seat in Sarawak had to be postponed due to floods.
That left 220 seats for grabs but Ghani said the results for Kota Marudu are pending due to weather conditions.
Of the 219 seats as of 4.30am today (Nov 20), Pakatan Harapan (PH) bagged the most at 76, followed closely by Perikatan Nasional (PN) with 73 seats (including 22 won by coalition partner PAS) and Barisan Nasional (BN) with 30 seats.
“Based on the results, there is no one party that managed to secure a majority of more than 50% of the total seats contested,” he told media at the EC headquarters in Putrajaya.
According to Ghani, the total voter turnout in GE15 was 73.89%.
On the state election front, Ghani declared that PN would form the Perlis state government after winning 14 out of 15 seats.
However, both Pahang and Perak will both see hung assemblies as no single coalition had gained simple majorities.
Of the 41 seats contested in Pahang, PN won 17 seats, BN (16) and PH (eight) while the result for Tioman is pending due to the death of one of the candidates.
“Based on this result, no party managed to gain a majority of more than 50% of the total seats contested. The total voter turnout in Pahang was 70.48%,” he pointed out.
In the case of Perak, of the 59 seats contested in the state, 26 went to PN, PH (24) and BN (nine). The total voter turnout in Perak stood at 66.71%.
PH chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has earlier claimed that the coalition has the numbers to form the biggest bloc in Parliament though no party nor coalition has a simple majority in the recently concluded national poll. – Nov 20, 2022
Pic credit: Harian Metro
