KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 — A day after the Johor state elections, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu called on the Opposition to take its loss at the polls as a lesson that it needs to reunite in preparation for the 15th general elections (GE15).

In a statement today, the Kota Raja MP — better known as Mat Sabu — listed the Opposition’s disunity as one the main reasons for Barisan Nasional’s (BN) win yesterday.

"To me, this result shows that BN did not increase in strength, instead they benefited from a clear split in the Opposition,” he said.

He also pointed out that taking into account all votes cast, non-BN parties had won over 200,000 more than BN.

"If the 200,000 votes were divided by the 56 state seats, on average, Opposition votes surpass BN’s by four thousand.

"This is a lesson to all of us, to reconnect, and devise a common strategy to face the GE soon,” he said. 

Mohamad Sabu also said that the low voter turnout, especially among the Chinese, had been a key factor in the election results.

"This factor caused the areas with mixed populations, which were strongholds of Pakatan Harapan (PH), to suffer defeat,” he said.

Yesterday, BN took the election by winning 40 out of 56 seats.