Azmin partly to blame for PN’s Mahkota defeat, 2 opposition leaders claim

The result might have been different if someone else had been chosen to lead PN’s campaign in the by-election.

(FMT) – The leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say the PN election director only relied on those closely aligned with him to help with the campaign.

Two opposition leaders said Azmin Ali, Perikatan Nasional’s election director, is partly to blame for the coalition’s loss in the recent Mahkota by-election.

A Bersatu leader who spoke on condition of anonymity said Azmin “did not do a good job” in mobilising the coalition’s machinery.

Azmin did not manage or coordinate the election machinery properly, the source claimed.

The PN operations centre did not communicate with the external machinery properly when organising the campaign, the source said, in reference to the coalition’s election workers based outside of Johor.

“As a result, they did not show up,” the source told FMT.

Another misstep by Azmin, the PN information chief, was to rely on “his own people”, the source said, referring to Bersatu members who were aligned with him.

The source also said Azmin should have roped in other component leaders to campaign for the PN candidate.

On Saturday, PN was roundly defeated after its candidate, Haizan Jaafar of Bersatu, managed to secure only 7,347 votes compared with Barisan Nasional’s Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah, who received 27,995 votes.

BN’s 20,648-vote majority was four times higher than the 5,166-vote margin BN achieved in the 2022 state election.

The source admitted that while PN expected to lose the Mahkota by-election, it did not expect to do so by such a huge margin.

“Had the turnout been higher, the results would not have been this bad. With a proper strategy, they could have mobilised more people (to come out to vote).”

Separately, a PN supreme council member who also spoke on condition of anonymity identified the lack of proper election machinery as the main reason for the opposition coalition’s thrashing at the polls.

Echoing the Bersatu leader’s assessment, the supreme council member claimed it was “not easy” to work with Azmin, who only engaged those he was close to.

“Throughout the campaign you would only have seen those aligned to Azmin present most of the days. He was in his own world, working closely with his inner circle,” the source said.

The supreme council member also claimed Bersatu “had barely anyone on the ground”, while PAS was relatively absent as it was not so popular in the mixed constituency.

“Plus, no one went all out as they had predicted it would be a very tough seat to win.”

The source said the result might have been different if someone else had been chosen to lead PN’s campaign in the by-election.

FMT has reached out to Azmin for comments.