Bewildering numbers.

 27.11.2022

I'm writing this 9 days after GE15. Which was not due for 7 more months.

It took 3 PM's to dissolve Parliament. To get the 10th. PM. All in a period of 53 months.

The magic number  for the 15th Parliament is 112 out of 222.

We got to vote for 221 only, because Padang Serai lost one candidate already nominated.

9 states chose to wait 6 more months before  dissolving.  3 joined the GE with Parliament.

After GE14 no dominant Party emerged.

Then UMNO had 54, PKR 47, DAP 42, PAS 18, BERSATU and PBB 13 each, Amanah 11, Warisan 8, and the rest shared by 9 other Parties, plus 3 without any Party.

After GE15 still no dominant Party emerged. In spite of the boasts by UMNO and PKR. Both are much worse-off now then in 2018, despite the frenzy of Zahid and Rafizi.

Apparently PAS quietly garnered all the tahfiz/Islamic schools and the fresh 18-year-old first-time voters, and you know where the votes went.

PAS got 49 ( +31 or almost triple), DAP 40 ( -2 or almost 5% less), PKR 31 ( -16 or more than 33% less), UMNO 26 ( - 28 or almost 52% less), BERSATU 24 ( + 11 or almost 85% more), PBB 14 (+1), Amanah 8 ( - 3), Warisan 3 ( -5) and the rest shared by 10 other parties ( + 1 more Party), plus 2 without any Party.

Summoned by the King, PN showed 115 supporters, it was reported. Unfortunately PH listed 112, as was also reported. The total was 227, not 222. On checking, some names appeared on both lists ! Royal rejection was unavoidable.

GPS with 23 had earlier given its support to PN. It was reported.

25 UMNO (minus 1 Bagan Datok) became at first split, but hours later, as a group, wanted to remain in the Opposition.

Unlike with the PN group, the King met with the 30 BN Group, apparently with Zahid having a  1 to 1 first with  the King.

What actually transpired here, only God Knows. But by then GPS  had announced an about-turn, preferring instead PH.

By now the King had met the PN and PH groups, and separately the BN Group, and called the other 8 Rajas together. It took 5 days. Only DAP and PAS stood on the sidelines unwavering, unheard, with 89 seats in hand. That's 40 % of Parliament.

GE15 maybe the mother-of-GE's - Zahid said this. At least he is probably right on that one.

21 million voters were supposed to come out and vote. Apparently the total turnout was 70%. 6.3 million stayed away, including the Mrs.

Almost 1,000 candidates stood for election, giving the average of 4.5. A record. In fact 4 constituencies had 8 candidates, 1 had 9 and Batu had 10.

6 constituencies had each given the winner more than 100,000 votes. The highest was Damansara, with 142,875.

9 constituencies gave the winners more than a 30,000-majority each. The highest was Tanah Merah with 44,485. But an exact same number, 9, gave the winners each less than a 800-majority. The lowest was Lubok Antu with 100. Ku Li lost by 163 in Gua Musang, a seat he's held forever. Zahid scraped through with 348. But at least it was slightly more than the 226 Tawfik Tun Dr. Ismail got. I wonder if there were recounts.

Incidently, Anwar in winning Tambun only got 38 % of the votes, what with the giant flag and the helicopter rides.

Some candidates in 30 constituencies (13.5 % of Parliament) all recorded receiving total votes of less than 1,000 each. The lowest was an Independent  candidate in Kota Bharu with 91.

From Party point of view, Pejuang was worst-off, with all candidates losing their deposits, including Tun Mahathir who got 4,566 votes out of 47,480 cast, or 9.62 %. What's the message ?

To add to the confusion, on top of the 13 Parties contesting in the Peninsula, all of them also appearing in Sabah and Sarawak, Sabah has 7 other parties to itself, while  Sarawak has 5 Sarawakian ones, bringing the grand total to 25. 

26 if, as you surely must, you include the Independents.

Of the 3 State Elections, Perlis (15 seats) with PN 14, PH 1 (a slap in Zaid's face by Shahidan ), Perak (59 seats) with PN 26, PH 24, BN 9, and Pahang ( 42 seats) with PN 17, BN 16, and PH 8. For these, PN has the edge over PH.

They say the community voting turnout was 98% for the Chinese, 77%  the Indians, and only 62 %  the Malays. Is there a premonition?

As to where the Malay votes went, it's said that 54% went to PN, 33% went to BN, and 11% went to PH. I've shared these numbers, but some of my readers have criticised the accuracy.  Is there a secret?

It's reported that the 4 big groupings of PH, PN, BN and GPS, combined, secured 70% of the national registered voters, with the figure of 14,680,688. PH (82 seats) had 5,894,096 voters, PN (73 seats) had 4,667,229, BN (30 seats) 3,456,762, and GPS (23 seats) 662,601. But they contested different total constituencies. PH in 220, PN in 171, BN in 179 and GPS in only 31. The average per constituency votes for each group become 26,791 for PH, 27,293 for PN, 19,311 for BN, and 21,374 for GPS. These make the voting spread fairly realistic, reflective of the final total outcome.

PM 10 said the 1st order of business for Parliament would be to count the support. How many will he get ? 

He also famously promised petrol price would go down by half once he's PM. Yup, you pay half now. But it's for half the amount.   Is that an omen of the fate of other sky-high promises ?

Bewildering numbers !

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