KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — The Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) alliance failed to make a clean sweep of all 36 seats in the Negeri Sembilan state election last Saturday due to low voter numbers, according to its caretaker menteri besar Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun.

Aminuddin who is also the state PH chief said the loss of Bagan Pinang, Gemas, Serting, Paroi and Labu to Perikatan Nasional (PN) were unexpected as the five state seats had been its strongholds, The Star reported today.

"Many didn’t come out to vote although they had returned for the weekend.

"We should take a cue from this as they probably thought it was not important for them to vote again as they only did so in November (last year),” he was quoted as saying in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.

In last Saturday’s poll, PH-BN won 31 of the 36 seats contested combined. PH bagged 17 of the 19 seats that it contested in, while BN got 14 of 17 seats.

In Election 2018, PH clinched 20 seats while BN took the remaining 16. The two coalitions were political rivals then, and only teamed up to take on common enemy PN after the 15th general election last November resulted in a parliamentary stalemate.

The PN coalition divided the 36 seats among its three component parties, with Parti Primbumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) contesting in 17 seats, PAS (13), and Gerakan (six).

PH-BN had been very confident of a sweeping victory in Negeri Sembilan prior to Saturday as several ministers like Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and Transport Minister Anthony Loke, were also running for the state seats and won.

Aminuddin won the Sikamat seat for a fourth term.

He also said there were two possible other factors for PH-BN’s electoral losses.

"The army votes in Bagan Pinang and Gemas may have been a factor why we lost these two seats.

"Two more, Paroi and Labu were semi-urban seats while Serting has many Felda schemes.

"This serves as a warning to us and we should quickly study what caused it,” he was quoted as saying.

He said there were a few other surprise seats in the newly-concluded state election, naming Ampangan and Lenggeng among them."Initially, we thought it would be tough to defend Ampangan as some members had rejected our candidate in place of the incumbent.

"Similarly in Lenggeng, some Amanah members had decided not to vote for Barisan after the seat was taken over by Umno but eventually, our election machinery agreed to set aside these differences for the good of all,” he was quoted as saying.

For Negeri Sembilan PAS chief Rafiei Mustapha who is also the state deputy PN chair, the lower voter turnout was a blessing in disguise for PH-BN that "saved” the alliance from a bigger embarrassment.

He added that PN’s five wins has enabled the coalition to make inroads into Negri Sembilan.

"Now that we have won five seats, we are here to stay.

"For the next five years, we will have five Perikatan assemblymen in the state assembly from having none previously,” he was quoted as saying.