Pakatan strengthens grip on Selangor

Flying the colours: Pakatan supporters gathering at Padang Timur in Petaling Jaya to watch the GE14 results live and celebrate their win.

KLANG: Selangor Pakatan Harapan has strengthened its grip on the state by winning 41 out of the 56 state assembly seats.

At press time, the Election Commission (EC) website said that Barisan Nasional had won four while PAS had one.

According to EC, Pakatan had also won 15 out of the 22 parliamentary seats, including wresting Hulu Selangor and Kuala Selangor from Barisan. The coalition managed to secure two.

In Hulu Selangor, Barisan incumbent Datuk P. Kamalanathan lost to Pakatan’s Leow Hsiad Hui, who garnered a 13,391-majority.

However, Selangor Barisan and Umno chief Tan Sri Noh Omar won the Tanjong Karang parliamentary seat with 17,596 votes which gave him a majority of 1,971 votes.

In a recent interview, Merdeka Centre programme director Ibrahim Suffian said that Pakatan would enjoy a big win in Selangor.

“We can see that support for Pakatan is very strong,” he said.

As for PAS, said Ibrahim, the Islamist party was left with its hardcore supporters among the Malay voters and nearly zero support among the non-Muslims.

“Given the state’s mixed ethnic profile and the minimal support it enjoys, PAS cannot cross the line in many constituencies,” said Ibrahim, adding that PAS had “completely squandered” the trust of the non-Muslims.

In Klang, DAP’s unofficial results at midnight indicated that incumbent MP Charles Santiago had garnered an almost 83,000-vote majority over his main opponent, Barisan’s Ching Eu Boon.

In the 2013 polls, Santiago obtained a majority of 24,685.