‘Unity wall stands against green wave’: Fahmi touts Pakatan-BN’s popular vote victory, says no deposit lost unlike Perikatan

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 14 — Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil has downplayed the performance of the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) alliance in the state elections, saying it withstood the challenge from Perikatan Nasional (PN).

In an interview, Fahmi said the alliance not only won the popular vote but also none of its candidates had lost their deposit — compared to PN which failed to achieve the one-eighth required votes in 18 seats.

“The green wave came, but the unity wall stood,” he said, referring to the support of religious conservatism named after the colour of the Islamist party PAS which had propelled PN to an unexpectedly strong performance in the 15th general election (GE15).

Fahmi said the alliance had almost 50 per cent of the total votes but only gained 40 per cent of the 245 seats due to malapportionment in the state seats.

In the six state elections, PH-BN won 3,399,472 votes, which was 49.58 per cent of the popular vote. In comparison, PN only trailed by over 17,000 votes at 3,382,455 (49.33 per cent).

“So Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang have shown that, on the ground, the unity approach can work,” the PH communications director said, referring to the three states the alliance won.

Fahmi also said that the federal government coalition — which also includes Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah — currently holds nine state administrations, and almost two-thirds of all state assembly seats in the country.

He went on to say that a factor in low voter turnout could be voter fatigue due to GE15 having been held less than a year beforehand.

Fahmi added that the unity government will now need to look at its candidates, machinery, manifesto, policies and campaigning methods to determine how it can improve on its performance in the 16th general election.

“In the coming weeks, we will be trying to look at the data in a granular fashion to really try and understand all these factors,” he said.

He also said he observed that voters were less interested in turning up at campaigning during the first half of the period, but more attended as the polls grew closer.

The six state elections saw PN strengthening its hold on Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu while achieving significant victories in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Penang which the PH-BN alliance succeeded in defending.