ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – A member party within Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s governing alliance wrested a state seat in a Kelantan by-election on August 17 from rival Perikatan Nasional (PN), in a boost for the Malaysian leader who has been struggling to win back Malay voters.
The rural Nenggiri seat in PN’s stronghold state of Kelantan was held by United Malays National Organisation (Umno) since it was created in 2003, but was lost by just 810 votes in the August 2023 state election. Umno is a member party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, one of the organisations under Anwar’s “unity government”.
This time round, Umno won by 3,352 votes, with 14,560 ballots cast.
Umno candidate Mohd Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani, 38, secured 9,091 votes, or 61.3 per cent of the valid votes, according to the Election Commission late on polling day.
His rival Mohd Rizwadi Ismail, 41, from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) – one of PN’s component parties – garnered 5,739 votes, or 39.7 per cent of the votes.
Malaysia’s by-elections are often used as quick barometers of the popularity of the government or the opposition. The by-election in the Malay-majority Nenggiri ward took on added importance after Anwar’s alliance lost badly in another Malay-majority seat Sungai Bakap in Penang, just six weeks ago.
