JOHOR BARU: Less than 24 hours after the state election results were announced, winning candidates from both sides of the political divide were on the ground, reconnecting with constituents.
The newly-elected representatives were seen in public places taking advantage of the weekend to personally meet and greet the people with some opting to upload videos on social media to thank their voters.
The mood in Barisan Nasional has been upbeat after the coalition won 48 out of the 56 state seats.
Observers, who described the big win as “Onn Hafiz Ghazi’s wave”, said the Mentri Besar’s leadership, especially in managing the state well, had won the hearts of voters across all races, including the young in opposition held seats.
All Barisan top leaders reminded their representatives to stay humble and get down to work immediately.
Even MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong held a late night meeting to direct all eight MCA representatives not to be arrogant and always bear in mind the mandate entrusted to them by the voters.
Following the victory, Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi was sworn in for a second term in front of the Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim at Istana Bukit Serene yesterday.
Umno won 36 out of the 37 seats that the party contested while MCA doubled its representatives in the state from four to eight.
The eight seats are Yong Peng, Paloh, Pekan Nanas, Bekok, Jementah, Layang Layang, Johor Jaya and Tangkak.
At least 26 of the Barisan seats were won with majorities exceeding 10,000 votes.
Umno’s Permas seat was won with the biggest majority at 29,505 votes, followed by Tiram (28,225) and Kota Iskandar (21,206).
All three are mixed seats which have a balance of Malay and non- Malay voters.
Semarang assemblyman Datuk Samsolbari Jamali, 65, also created history when he successfully won the seat for a record sixth consecutive term since 2004.
Samsolbari is among 13 Umno division leaders who won in the state elections.
MIC also fared well when it not only captured all four seats allotted but also created history by winning Perling – an urban seat in a Chinese-majority area – for the first time.
MIC vice-president Datuk M. Asojan credited Onn Hafiz’s image and standing among Bangsa Johor as one of the major factors, which caused a huge swing of voters towards Barisan despite a higher voter turnout of 68% compared with 54% in 2022.
Pakatan Harapan’s seats were reduced from 12 to eight with DAP losing four seats, including its strongholds of Johor Jaya and Perling, which it held for two and three terms, respectively.
Johor DAP chief Teo Nie Ching, in a post on her social media, said a shift of votes from Perikatan Nasional had gone to Barisan, allowing the coalition to capture both seats.
She said DAP would conduct a post-mortem to determine the factors which led to the crushing defeat in Jementah and Tangkak as the party only won six out of the 17 seats it contested.
Observers noted that DAP only had a better showing in Bentayan and Skudai where the majority increased by over 1,300 votes, compared with the 2022 elections.
In all the other four seats that DAP won, namely Stulang and Senai, the winning margin dropped by over 1,000 votes while Mengkibol and Penggaram saw a decline of over 5,000 votes.
PKR, which contested a lion’s share of the seats with 20, only scraped through with one seat, which was won by Dr Maszlee Malik in Puteri Wangsa.
Amanah, which contested 19 seats, retained the Simpang Jeram seat with a slim majority of 170 votes, compared to a huge majority of 13,844 votes in 2022.
Observers also noted that the turmoil in Perikatan due to the rift between PAS and Bersatu also resulted in both parties losing both Maharani and Bukit Kepong.
Maharani has been a PAS stronghold for four terms while Bukit Kepong was held by Johor Bersatu chairman and former mentri besar Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal.
Other parties including Parti Bersama Malaysia, Malaysian Indian People’s Party (MIPP), Parti Orang Asli Malaysia (Asli) and Parti Sosialis Malaysia failed to make a breakthrough.
Bersama, MIPP and Asli were making their Johor election debut.
All six independent candidates also lost their bids.
A record 55 out of the 172 candidates who contested in the state polls lost their deposits.
