MARANG: Perikatan Nasional has totally conquered Terengganu.
There will be no opposition as the coalition won all the 32 seats in the state legislative assembly.
Perikatan also won the Kuala Terengganu by-election which is being held concurrently with the state polls.
It retained the parliamentary seat by a more than 47,000-vote majority, after the Terengganu Election Court on June 27 annulled the victory of MP Datuk Ahmad Amzad Hashim of PAS in the 15th General Election due to corrupt practices.
With the Kuala Terengganu victory, all the 32 state seats and all eight parliamentary seats will be controlled by Perikatan.
In GE14, PAS, which campaigned on its own, only managed to capture 22 state seats while its arch-rival Barisan Nasional won 10, mostly in the north, south and interior regions of the state.
As of 10.30pm last night, Perikatan declared that it had captured the remaining 10 seats that were held by Barisan.
Perikatan’s victory in the state appeared to be a veritable “green tsunami” as it captured seats from Barisan’s strongholds with comfortable majorities of more than 2,000 votes.
It also defeated giants from Barisan, including two former mentris besar – Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, who contested the Kijal seat, and Datuk Seri Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman in Seberang Takir.
Other seats that Perikatan managed to wrest included Kuala Besut, Bukit Besi, Telemung, Langkap, Batu Rakit, Hulu Besut, Jertih and Permaisuri.
Signs of the historic victory came at about 8pm at a Perikatan rally at Rusila, where it was announced that Barisan’s strongholds of Telemung and Seberang Takir had fallen to PAS.
The crowd started getting ecstatic when PAS officials started to announce the coalition had won seven seats, then 14, and finally 18 seats, thus crossing the 17-seat threshold needed to win a simple majority in the state assembly.In the seats won in GE14, Perikatan significantly increased the winning margin.
For instance in Ladang, the coalition upped the margin to about 4,300, as compared to the 360 votes in the previous state polls. Meanwhile in Batu Buruk, its winning majority jumped from about 5,600 in GE14 to more than 17,600 votes.
PAS officials attributed the massive gains to young voters and those who returned home to vote, as reflected in the fact that the state recorded the highest voter turnout out of all six states.
Frenzied mass: A policeman stands in front of a crowd of Perikatan supporters at the vote-tallying centre in Kijal, Terengganu. — Bernama
“We were worried at first because in some voting centres, young people had not gone out to vote in the morning.
“Our efforts paid off as we worked very hard until the last hours of the campaigning period to entice them,” said Terengganu PAS Youth leader Harun Ehsan.
“As the polling hours wore on, we were glad that voters made a steady stream into the voting centres to cast their ballots,” he told a crowd of supporters who packed Dewan Tok Guru in Rusila last night to celebrate the win.
“We will use this victory to increase the development that we have started in Terengganu, both physically and spiritually.”
In his speech, caretaker Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar pledged that his government would represent all residents, regardless of their political leanings.
“This victory is a heavy responsibility for us. The government that we will form is not just a government for the people in Perikatan.
“There are people out there who did not vote for us but they are still citizens of Terengganu. We have to look after them fairly and equitably,” he said.
Also addressing the crowd was Terengganu PAS veteran Datuk Yahya Ali, who reminded the party faithful that they now had to be the “opposition” in the state.
“We cannot be yes men to our leaders. We are all now watchdogs of the government. If they do wrong, don’t be afraid to voice it out,” he said.
