IT was good optics when Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi personally drove his Proton X50 to send two elderly voters to SMK Seri Perdana in Kluang when the doors to the polling centre opened at 8am.
He arrived unannounced and even caught reporters who were waiting for the Barisan Nasional candidate off-guard as there were no outriders with him.
Located in a housing estate, the school was one of the major voting centres in this constituency with over 6,000 voters. Barisan candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah also voted there.
From the beginning, Barisan was touted as having a clear upper hand in the by-election.
Onn Hafiz took it upon himself to persuade young and outstation voters, who make up about 50% of the seat’s 66,318 voters, to cast their ballots.
He even had two separate media meet-ups at his official residence to persuade Chinese voters to come back and vote and to not to punish him or Barisan over issues outside the state.
He also had similar meet-ups with Malay and Indian media as well and announced a slew of grants for NGOs.
He aimed to win the seat with a strong majority of over 20,000 votes, almost four times the majority secured during the state election in March 2022.
In that election, Barisan won with a 5,155-vote majority when they polled 16,611 in a three-cornered fight with Pakatan coming in second with 11,445 votes and Perikatan Nasional 7,614 votes.
Onn Hafiz’s efforts paid off as despite the low voter turnout of only 53.84% coupled with heavy rain in the afternoon, Barisan managed to get its landslide victory when it won by a 20,000-vote majority, largely due to the support of Pakatan supporters.
In the 2022 state elections, the turnout was much higher as 57.34%.
Perikatan candidate Mohamad Haizan Jaafar only managed to secure 7,332 votes.
The victory came on the heels of a glum two-week campaign which heated up at the last minute. Allegations that the Barisan candidate had a criminal record and hopes to be the next Kluang Umno division chief failed to turn off voters from Barisan.
Johor Umno information chief Datuk Md Jais Sarday was quick to point out that the results showed the Malays continue to back the party while non-Malays, especially Chinese voters, were now receptive towards Barisan’s alliance with Pakatan.
“We won in almost all nine Chinese streams in the town area that we had lost in the past. So this is a good indication for Barisan and Pakatan to continue to collaborate, especially in GE16.
“We need to continue convincing our supporters of the need to work with Pakatan, especially DAP, to win in the next elections,” said Md, Jais, who is also Kluang Umno division chief.
For Perikatan, it managed to retain almost the same number of voters in the by-election as the 7,614 votes it polled in 2022, despite talks of a rift between component parties Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and PAS.
However, a local Perikatan leader dismissed this saying that all parties will have issues which they will resolve internally.
“We have been the underdogs from the beginning, as Barisan had a well-oiled machinery and the state government was also fully backing them announcing goodies all over the constituency.
“But we will need to sit down with our partners PAS and Gerakan and find out what went wrong,” the Bersatu leader said.
Political scientist Assoc Prof Dr Mazlan Ali said the by-election was an important indicator if Umno could get the backing of not just the Malays but other races as well.
He said that in the Nenggiri by-election in Kelantan last month, Umno showed that it was able to win in a 95% Malay majority seat.
“Mahkota is a mixed seat and now with such a strong majority, it shows that they are now getting support from the non-Malays as well,” he said, adding that that was why Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had been busy campaigning with MCA and MIC leaders in the constituency.
Mazlan, of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said Ahmad Zahid wanted to show his critics that a fractured Umno was now on the mend and becoming stronger since it started working with Pakatan in the unity government.
For Onn Hafiz, he said the victory was a thumbs-up for his policies to develop Johor.
In a nutshell, the Mahkota voters have shown that they favour stability and continuity with a strong government, as well as a prosperous economy.
