Mahkota by-election: Barisan Nasional retains seat in Johor state with landslide victory

KUALA LUMPUR – Barisan Nasional (BN) retained its state seat by a landslide in the Mahkota by-election in Johor on September 28, demonstrating its continued dominance in the southern Malaysian state.

According to the official results, BN’s primary candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah, 40, won with an overwhelming 20,648 votes and received 27,995 votes, or around 79 percent of the valid votes.

His Perikatan Nasional (PN) rival, 61-year-old former Johor state footballer Mohamad Haizan Jaafar, received only 7,347 votes, about 21 percent of the vote.

After thanking the electoral machinery and “our friends in PH (Pakatan Harapan)”, Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said: “Thank you also to the Chinese voters for their strong support as we achieved a big victory in the Dorset district. “ Polling station where Barisan received 3,159 votes against Perikatan’s 1,040.”

BN, an alliance led by the Umno Party, controls the Johor state government with its supermajority of 40 of the 56 seats in the state assembly. It is also part of the federal unity government led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his PH coalition.

The opposition PN is dominated by the Islamist parties Parti Islam SeMalaysia and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.

According to the Election Commission, Mahkota has 66,318 registered voters, with Malaysians making up 54%, followed by Chinese at 34% and Indians at 8%.

This time, voter turnout was 54 percent, lower than the 57 percent recorded in the 2022 Johor state election.

Complacency from both BN and PH, as well as the expectation that BN was likely to win, contributed to the lower turnout, said Universiti Malaya socio-political analyst Awang Azman Awang Pawi.

In any case, BN’s overwhelming victory is a clear rejection of the PN’s religious and ethnic policies, which focus on divisive narratives that could anger more moderate and multicultural parts of the electorate, he added.

“Johor is a more urbanized and progressive state compared to PN’s northern strongholds and is probably less receptive to extremist ethno-religious narratives,” Mr Awang said.

Mr Halmie Azrie Abdul Halim, senior analyst at political risk consultancy Vriens and Partners, said: “This victory is a signal that Johor remains an Umno cornerstone and that PN has no presence there.”

Still, a BN victory was not a guarantee before the votes were counted.

While the member parties of BN and PH – namely Umno and the Democratic Action Party (DAP) – had campaigned together in Mahkota to win the support of Malay and non-Malay voters, a war of words between their leaders earlier threatened to derail those efforts close.

In early September, Umno youth chief Akmal Salleh had ordered DAP chief Teresa Kok not to comment on Islamic issues after she spoke out on a proposal to make halal certification mandatory for Muslim-friendly restaurants.

She later attributed the controversy on the matter to a misunderstanding by various parties.

After their heated exchange, it was reported that Dr. Akmal would only play a limited role in the by-election campaign to prevent further division between communities.

Analysts say the recent by-election push, showing Mr Syed Hussien’s strong poll numbers, reflects the electorate’s enthusiasm for the BN-PH cooperation, particularly among Umno and DAP supporters.