The decline of BN supporters in Langkawi

Barisan Nasional always had great electoral results in Langkawi parliamentary seat. Barisan Nasional never lose in Langkawi ever since the constituency was founded in 1995.

The Langkawi people loyalty towards Mahathir can be seen when UMNO was split into two. During the uprising of Semangat 46, Mahathir split Langkawi-Jerlun into two constituency, because he is so confident in winning the seat in both Langkawi and Jerlun. Turn out, Abu Bakar Taib from Mahathir UMNO side win 77.13%, a landslide with a majority of 8,425. In fact, that was the best result Barisan Nasional ever got from Langkawi.

Currently, Nawawi Ahmad is the incumbent for the Langkawi MP seat. Formerly, he was an ADUN for Kuah (Langkawi) from 2004 to 2008. Before Nawawi took over, former Langkawi MP Abu Bakar Taib rode on the wave of Mahathir’s contribution to Langkawi. Today, Nawawi just took over the surfboard from Abu Bakar Taib. There weren’t any significant changes that they made to Langkawi. Like the saying, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”.

However, the people of Langkawi are not ungrateful. They remembered Mahathir’s contribution in transforming the agricultural-based island into a tourism hub. Currently, Nawawi is in an unfavourable position going against the political veteran.

Besides, as we can tell from the vote trend, people of Langkawi support towards Barisan Nasional have faded over time. In 2008 general election, Abu Bakar Taib only got 61.02% votes, while opposition Wan Salleh Wan Isa from PKR got 38.98% votes.

Based on the past election results, Mahathir have the upper hand as he has both PKR supporters and his own personal supporters.