JOHOR BARU – While most of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) heavyweights in Johor have emerged victorious in the 15th general election (GE15), the mood is still bleak in Umno’s birth state.
BN and Umno leaders were conspicuously absent at the state Umno headquarters in Johor Baru after polling, with only Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi and Umno Ayer Hitam division chief Datuk Samsolbari Jamali present.
However, both leaders left the Johor Umno complex without giving any comments to the more than 20 media personnel gathered.
Official results were still being tabulated by the Election Commission (EC), but it appeared that Johor BN had failed to achieve its target for GE15 of winning 20 federal seats out of the total 26 in the state.
As of 12.17am, the EC website showed that BN had won nine federal seats in Johor, while Pakatan Harapan (PH) had won 13. Perikatan Nasional (PN) had won two and Muda, one. PH is also expected to win in the last seat, Kulai.
Johor Umno chief Datuk Hasni Mohammad managed to wrest the Simpang Renggam parliamentary seat back from PH’s grasp.
Hasni, who garnered 18,312 votes, defeated the seat’s incumbent Maszlee Malik, who only obtained 16,491 votes. PN candidate Fazrul Kamat, came in third with 9,077 votes while Pejuang candidate Kamal Kusmin lost his deposit after only managing to obtain 251 votes.
Apart from Hasni, Umno’s vice-president and former state menteri besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin won the Kota Tinggi seat.
Khaled won Kota Tinggi with a majority of 8,390 votes – defeating candidates from PH and PN. – The Vibes, November 20, 2022
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