Khalid Samad said Bersatu’s defeat at Tanjung Piai would not affect PH’s government

Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (Bersatu) suffered a landslide loss against MCA during the Tanjung Piai by-election on last Saturday (November 16).

MCA’s candidate Wee Jeck Seng dominated the poll with a majority of 15,086 votes against Bersatu’s Karmaine Sardini.

According to the Election Commission (EC), the turnout for the by-election was at 39,440 out of the 52,986 eligible voters, or 74.43%. In GE-14, the turnout rate for the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat was at 85.67 % or 45,858 voters.

There is a difference of about 6,500 voters in the turnout of the last two elections at Tanjung Piai. Even if the 6,500 voters shown up and voted for Bersatu, Karmaine would still be short of roughly 850 votes behind Wee.

The result came as a shock to many as it was previously reported that it will be a close fight between Bersatu and MCA. PKR president Datuk Sei Anwar Ibrahim said the loss should serve as a message to the entire PH leadership, urging the coalition to evaluate itself on what it did or didn’t do that could have contributed to the people’s dissatisfaction.

However, Minister of Federal Territories Khalid Samad expressed a contrary opinion. He said Bersatu’s defeat in Tanjung Piai would not harm the Pakatan Harapan’s government.

In his tweet, Khalid said that the by-election result would only affect the parliament, but the federal government and the state government of Johor will still be under PH’s leadership.

The Federal Territories Minister added that Barisan’s landslide win in the Tanjung Piai by-election does not necessarily mean that the people want the former administration to return to power.

He also labelled BN as a “kleptocratic government”, an ongoing narrative used by PH to describe the previous government which was allegedly involved in numerous high-profile scandals, notably the 1MDB scandal.

Consequently, Khalid’s opinionated tweet caused a storm on Twitter with netizens throwing brickbats at him. The tweet garnered almost 800 comments and over 90 retweets.

He was criticized for maintaining an arrogant attitude despite his coalition suffering a massive loss in Tanjung Piai. Some challenged Khalid to vacate his Shah Alam parliamentary seat to see whether the people still supports PH in the constituency.

It seems like many are anxiously waiting for the arrival of GE-15 so they could topple Khalid Samad in the election.

Many netizens expressed their eagerness for GE-15 to arrive, hoping to see Khalid toppled from his Shah Alam parliamentary seat.