Support for PN stayed the same despite low turnout, says Muhyiddin

The PN chairman says the coalition accepts the choice made by the majority of Kuala Kubu Baharu voters to elect Pang Sock Tao of Pakatan Harapan.

(FMT) – The Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election results indicate that support for Perikatan Nasional generally remained the same as during the state elections last year despite the lower voter turnout this time, says PN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said the opposition coalition accepted the choice made by the voters to elect Pakatan Harapan’s Pang Sock Tao as their assemblyman.

In a statement late last night, he thanked those who voted for the PN candidate, Khairul Azhari Saut, and the PN election machinery for working hard in assisting with the election campaign.

“PN will study the results of this by-election in detail and take steps to further boost support for the party in the future,” he said.

Khairul, the Hulu Selangor Bersatu chief, polled 10,131 votes yesterday, slightly lower than the 10,743 won by Gerakan’s Henry Teoh in the state elections last year.

He lost by a 3,869-vote majority to Pang who received 14,000 votes.

Selangor PN chief Azmin Ali contended that PH had suffered a greater decline in votes than PN because of the lower voter turnout of 61.5%.

“(During last year’s state election) we won 10,743 votes and today we garnered 10,131 votes, which meant a decline of just 628 votes,” he said.

In comparison, Pang’s 14,000 votes was an 862-vote decrease compared to what the late Lee Kee Hiong won during the last state polls.

Azmin said preliminary analysis of the results show that PN won over the support of elderly voters, earning most of the ballots in streams one to three. He said this was because of PN’s proposed policies and programmes that would have benefited them.