The Malaysian Insight

BARISAN Nasional could have won the 14th general election if the coalition had asked for a recount in narrowly lost seats, said Tapah MP M. Saravanan.

“They (Pakatan Harapan) didn’t win big (in these narrowly lost seats)… if we had not panicked, if we had asked for a recount in places we lost narrowly, we could have won,” the former deputy minister said during a ceramah in Taman Sri Andalas, Klang, last night.

BN lost Putrajaya for the first time in history, securing only 79 of the 222 parliamentary seats in the May 9 polls.

PH swept to victory after winning 113 seats, while its Sabah ally, Parti Warisan Sabah, won eight.

The Election Commission was slammed for delaying the announcement of the election results.

PAS, which attempted to be kingmaker in the event of a hung Parliament, won 18 seats.

MIC central committee member Saravanan retained Tapah with a slim majority of 614 votes, compared with 7,927 in 2013.

The three-term lawmaker said BN conceded defeat gracefully.

“We didn’t say the lights were turned off (‘lampu dipadam’). We didn’t say the EC was not transparent.”

Former Padang Serai MP N. Gobalakrishnan, who spoke after Saravanan, said although it might have been God’s will that PH won, the pact had done so by trickery.

He said if PH had lost, its leaders would have taken to the streets to protest, but BN leaders went home quietly.

“There was no chaos. BN showed a high degree of humanity,” said the former PKR leader, who has rejoined MIC. – August 3, 2018.