KUALA LUMPUR — Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) foray into Penang’s mainland has proven to be most devastating so far as the coalition successfully won all three of its state seats under the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency, once considered a bastion for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his family.
The three seats, Seberang Jaya, Permatang Pasir and Penanti, had been represented by two PKR candidates and one from Amanah. But following Saturday’s polling, all three candidates lost convincingly between the 3,108 and 4,926-vote majority to PN’s Bersatu and PAS candidates respectively.
Speaking to Scoop, political analyst Bridget Welsh said the “pull factor” for Anwar in Permatang Pauh is not there anymore.
“But it is important to remember that he no longer represents Permatang Pauh, he represents a different constituency (Tambun, Perak), and he also represents Pakatan Harapan (PH) as a leader.
“PH’s bases in all six states remained as it was (after the state elections) so he has a new political base that is not Permatang Pauh anymore,” she said.
Anwar, who was Umno Youth chief in 1982, first became the MP for Permatang Pauh, and managed to retain the seat even after he was expelled from the party in 1998.
Altogether, Anwar served as Permatang Pauh MP for 24 years, while his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail 12 years, and his daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar for four years (2018-2022).
However, the family finally lost the seat in the 2022 general election when PAS’ Muhammad Fawwaz Mohamad Jan won the seat, defeating Nurul Izzah.
Despite the initial setback, Anwar’s grassroots support was supposed to ensure PH secured all three state seats.
Instead, Izhar Shah Arif Shah (PN-Bersatu) won the Seberang Jaya seat against PKR’s Johari Kassim. The seat was won by PKR in 2013 and 2018 but its assemblyman at the time, Dr Afif Bahardin had left PKR to join Bersatu in 2020.
The Permatang Pasir seat has been a seat held by PAS for close to 20 years until PH-Amanah won in 2018, but its candidate Muhammad Faiz Fadzil failed to defend his seat this time when PAS’ Amir Hamzah Abdul Hashim @ Md Hashim won the seat with a 3,108-vote majority.
PKR’s stronghold seat, Penanti, which it held since 2008 went to Bersatu yesterday after Zulkefli Bakar won with a 3,575-vote majority against PKR’s Rohsidi Hussin.
Political analyst Prof Awang Azman Awang Pawi said PH lost the three state seats from the “PN wave” that used the sentiment of race and religion to attract voters.
He added that while people are seeing Umno losing support in its seats, PKR is also going through the same thing.
Nevertheless, he said, PH and BN have their own strengths and weaknesses, like how BN failed to contribute in Terengganu and Kelantan, but contributed to the formation of the state government in Negri Sembilan with 14 seats.
“This shows Umno’s strength; it means that both PH and BN have their own strengths and weaknesses that still can be improved,” he said.
Overall, PH’s victory in Penang was highly dependent on DAP, which had won all 19 seats that it contested. But PKR, which won 12 seats in the state in 2018, only won seven seats this time, while Amanah went from two seats to one.
In total, PKR and Amanah lost seven seats in Penang in this state election, while PH’s ally BN-Umno managed to win two seats out of six seats that it contested. — August 14, 2023