PERIKATAN Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, fresh from his coalition’s victory at the Padang Serai and Tioman polls, has called the “lies” told by Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) the “biggest electoral fraud ever”.
He said the results of both polls indicate that the people are not enthusiastic about the PH-BN collaboration to form the federal government
“PN’s big win in the Padang Serai parliamentary election and slim loss in the Tioman state seat are a positive sign that the people are still backing PN,” the Bersatu president said in a Facebook post.
“This is evidence that the people are weary of the collaboration between PH and BN. They are not confident of the unity government’s capabilities to run the country.”
The Pagoh MP said voters were disappointed with the “lies” told by PH and BN leaders during the general election campaign, which had resulted in many of their supporters voting for PN instead.
“To me, the lies told by PH and BN are the ‘biggest electoral fraud ever’ and [last night] voters in Padang Serai and Tioman have given the clear indication that they do not approve of what both coalitions had done,” he remarked.
The Padang Serai election saw PN’s Datuk Azman Nasrudin winning 56.5% of the votes (a 16,260-vote majority) against PH’s Dr Mohamad Sofee Razak.
The Padang Serai election was deferred to Dec 7 after PH candidate M. Karupaiya, who won the seat in GE14, died three days before polling on Nov 19.
Karupaiya, who is said to have died of a heart attack, won the seat in the 2018 general election with a majority of more than 8,000 votes.
As for the Tioman election, BN clung on to the seat by a sliver following a massive vote swing towards PN.
PN has won 13 out of 14 Parliamentary seats in Kedah and all seats in Perlis, Kelantan, and Terengganu – a phenomenon that some observers described as “PN’s northern crescent”.
With PN’s victory in Padang Serai last night, the coalition now has 74 seats in the Dewan Rakyat while its component party Bersatu has 31 seats. UMNO, in contrast, has only 26. – Dec 8, 2022
Main pic credit: The Star
