KLANG (Aug 13): The Selangor state government remains under the unity government following the latest state polls, with Pakatan Harapan (PH) securing 32 state seats out of the 44 seats contested, while coalition partner Barisan Nasional (BN) won two of 12 seats that it was placed in.

In total, the unity government won 34 seats. In GE14, PH secured a two-thirds majority - with 51 seats won.

Perikatan Nasional (PN), on the other hand, made inroads in the west coast state with 22 seats won.

The menteri besar candidates for both sides managed to win in their respective seats, with PH’s Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari defending Sungai Tua with a slimmer margin of 14.99%, down from 40.2% in GE14.

His former mentor Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali of PN, meanwhile, won the Hulu Kelang seat to mark his political comeback after losing the Gombak parliamentary seat in GE15 last year - albeit with a very slim margin of 3.26%.

Notably, PN coalition member Gerakan, which contested eight seats in Selangor, didn't manage to win any seats at all. The same is true for Muda, which lost all 14 seats it contested in - with all of its candidates losing their election deposits. Selangor is also the state where the bulk of Muda's 19 candidates were fielded.

In an immediate statement after the election results were announced, Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Syed Abdul Rahman said the state polls this round have been "a very humbling experience" for the party, but that he is proud of each of the party's candidates.

"However, it is a necessary step to build a platform featuring new leaders and demonstrate our ideals to the Malaysian public. We believe that this is a challenge that we have to face. We take full responsibility for our outcome, of which we will continue to work harder, reiterate our commitment to voice out wrongdoings and be the check and balance to both federal and state governments," he added.

The two seats that BN’s Umno secured, meanwhile, were Dusun Tua - a PH-stronghold that DAP gave up to its coalition partner - and Sungai Air Tawar. Both seats were won by slim majorities.

Umno's Datuk Johan Abd Aziz barely kept the Dusun Tua seat within the coalition with a margin of 5.62%, while his fellow party colleague Datuk Rizam Ismail took home Sungai Air Tawar with a 5.68% margin.

The best performer was DAP, which secured all 15 of the seats contested by the PH component party. Meanwhile, PKR won 12 of 20 seats contested, while Amanah won five out of nine.

Speaking at a press conference here after declaring the unity government has retained the state, Amirudin thanked everyone who supported the coalition.

While acknowledging the coalition has lost its footing in Malay-majority seats in the outskirts of Selangor, Amirudin nevertheless pointed out that "it was not an overwhelming win" for PN, and that the unity government in Selangor "has beaten the green wave that was created in February 2020".

“It is not an overwhelming win in northern Selangor [for PN]; we have given a tough fight in Sungai Besar, Sabak Bernam," he said.

He also pointed to the Kuala Kubu Baharu seat, a mixed seat in Hulu Selangor that DAP managed to retain, albeit by a slimmer margin.

The unity government "represents all Selangorians, regardless of their political affiliations", he added. The MB candidate urged voters in the state to respect the people's mandate, adding that the state government will work hard to strengthen racial harmony in the state.

PN supporters in Shah Alam were seen in high spirits after the coalition's substantial gains. It performed better than expected based on the voting trends seen in GE15, which showed it leading in 14 state seats.

Including Hulu Kelang, PN made inroads in several other seats in urban Selangor. Among the toughest-contested seats were Taman Medan in Petaling Jaya, where Afif Bahardin of Bersatu won with the slimmest majority of 30 votes or 0.07%, defeating Ahmad Akhir Pawan Chik from PKR - the party that held the seat for three terms since 2008.

Others include Gombak Setia (with a margin of 0.09% against Umno) and Bukit Melawati (with a margin of 3.08% against PKR) - both contested by Bersatu candidates - as well as semi-urban seats such as Sungai Kandis and Sungai Ramal.

The coalition, however, lost in Batu Tiga, where it fielded former minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun, a seat that voting trends in GE15 predicted PH would have had a hard time defending. The seat was won by PH-Amanah Danial Al-Rashid Haron Aminar Rashid, with a 5.97% or 3,382 margin, who polled 29,064 votes against Rina's 25,682. Muda's Saiyidah Izzati Nur Razak Maideen, who made the Batu Tiga seat a three-cornered fight, took 1,908 votes and lost his RM5,000 deposit. 

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