Negeri Sembilan pact aims to unite Malay votes

An electoral pact between Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) in Negeri Sembilan is poised to consolidate Malay votes, significantly boosting their chances in the upcoming state elections.

The cooperation, which involves avoiding contests in the same constituencies, is designed to ensure that Malay votes are not divided, thereby strengthening the position of both coalitions. This strategy is particularly vital in Negeri Sembilan, where 23 of the 36 State Legislative Assembly seats are majority Malay. Winning these seats is key to forming the state government, which requires a simple majority of 19 seats.

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The Malay votes in majority Malay areas will be the deciding factor, if in other areas it will be the opposite.

In previous elections, Pakatan Harapan (PH) secured only four majority Malay seats. The BN-PN understanding is also anticipated to benefit them in three mixed seats with nearly balanced Malay and non-Malay voter compositions, which were previously won by the Democratic Action Party (DAP).

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When votes are not split, the chance of winning is better; that is the reality. If they are split, we will eventually lose, the message is very clear.

Datuk Mustapha Nagoor, Secretary of the Negeri Sembilan UMNO Liaison Body, stated that Malay voters will be decisive, especially in majority-Malay areas. "When votes are not split, the chance of winning is better; that is the reality. If they are split, we will eventually lose, the message is very clear," he told Utusan Malaysia.

BN has announced its candidates for 25 of the 36 seats, with UMNO contesting 16, MCA seven, and MIC two. Negeri Sembilan Pas Deputy Commissioner Kamarol Ridzuan Mohd. Zain expressed confidence in defeating PH, emphasizing the need for BN and PN votes to merge. He also noted optimism for winning non-Malay seats due to a potential shift in support from Chinese voters.

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We definitely want to defeat PH, that is clear and to achieve it, BN and PN votes need to merge.

MIC Negeri Sembilan Chairman P. Supramanium believes the combined BN and PN vote will help MIC win the Sri Tanjung and Seremban Jaya seats, previously held by PH. He stressed the importance of grassroots campaigning to capitalize on this opportunity.

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This cooperation will help, even though these two seats were won by PH before. However, BN's chances of reclaiming them have increased thanks to the votes given by these cooperation 'partners'.