KLANG: Pakatan Harapan has held on to Selangor with its unity government partner Barisan Nasional but not without their rival making major inroads in the state.
Pakatan and Barisan secured 34 out of the 56 seats in the state assembly, with Perikatan Nasional taking the rest.
DAP, which is part of Pakatan, slayed it opponents by winning all the 15 seats it contested.
The much watched Hulu Kelang constituency saw former mentri besar Datuk Seri Azmin Ali edging out Pakatan’s Jawairiya Zulkifli by a 1,617 majority.
The Permatang seat was won by Nurul Syazwani Noh of Perikatan. This is an indication that her father, former Umno six-term Tanjong Karang MP Tan Sri Noh Omar, is still wielding influence in Selangor.
Furthermore, the Sungai Burong seat fell to Perikatan as well. Both Permatang and Sungai Burong come under the Tanjong Karang parliamentary constituency.
Noh, a veteran political warlord, was sacked from Umno early this year.
According to Nurul Syazwani, this had pushed her to also quit the party and join Bersatu.
One of Umno’s biggest losses was in the Sungai Panjang seat where the party’s Selangor youth chief Datuk Imran Tamrin lost his incumbency to Perikatan’s Razali Saari.
The biggest blow to Pakatan and Barisan is probably the huge defeats in northern Selangor.
All the state seats there fell to Perikatan, except for Sungai Air Tawar and Sekinchan, which were retained by Umno’s Datuk Rizam Ismail and DAP’s Ng Suee Lim respectively.
Pakatan’s biggest margin of victories were in Subang Jaya where incumbent Michelle Ng of DAP won her seat with a 51,191 majority and PKR’s Gunaraj George who obtained a 46,250 majority to retain his Sentosa seat.
Some of the shocking losses for Pakatan were in Morib and Paya Jaras which formerly belonged respectively to former deputy speaker Hasnul Baharudin (Amanah) and PKR’s Khairuddin Othman.
Azmin’s proteges – Hilman Idham and and Dr Afif Bahardin – won the Gombak Setia and Taman Medan seats for Perikatan by the skin of their teeth with a majority of 30-odd votes.
Non-Malay candidates contesting under the Perikatan ticket lost heavily, which is an indication that the Chinese and Indian communities have rejected the Opposition front.
Among the seats won by Pakatan were in Sungai Air Tawar, Sekinchan, Kuala Kubu Baru, Rawang, Taman Templer, Sungai Tua, Bukit Antarabangsa, Lembah Jaya, Pandan Indah, Teratai, Balakong, Seri Kembangan, Seri Serdang, Kinrara, Subang Jaya, Bukit Gasing, Kampung Tunku, Bandar Utama, Meru, Bandar Baru Klang, Pelabuhan Klang, Pandamaran, Sentosa, Banting, Tanjung Sepat and Sungai Pelek.
Perikatan, meanwhile, took the seats of Sabak, Sungai Panjang, Ulu Bernam, Sungai Burong, Permatang, Bukit Melawati, Ijok, Jeram, Hulu Kelang, Semenyih, Sungai Ramal, Taman Medan, Selat Klang, Sungai Kandis, Morib and Gombak Setia.