PENANG: A Pakatan Harapan and unity government leader has conceded defeat in the Sungai Bakap by-election.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said although ballots at two polling streams had yet to be tallied, the unofficial results were clear.
"The Perikatan Nasional candidate (Abidin Ismail) retained the Sungai Bakap state seat with a bigger majority compared with the state election last year.
"The result is a reflection of the people's feelings over what is happening currently.
"The unity government will conduct a post-mortem of the results and review our performance throughout the campaign and our weaknesses, strengths or anything related to the drop in votes.
"After the post-mortem, we believe we will get a clearer picture to take the necessary actions," he told journalists yesterday evening.
At press time, unofficial results show that Abidin has defeated Pakatan Harapan's Dr Joohari Ariffin to retain the Sungai Bakap seat for PN.
Chow said the state government would find solutions to the issues raised by voters during the campaign.
"We will never sideline voters who need our help.
"Although we cannot wrest the seat from PN, we will strive to resolve their problems as PH holds the Nibong Tebal parliamentary seat," he added.
Chow said although all PH parties showed good cooperation during the campaign, early analysis showed they failed to convince the people in Sungai Bakap, especially on national, state and local issues.
"Maybe our explanation failed to convince the voters so we must take the necessary action and expedite communication and narratives on issues concerning the people, which may cause their anger, especially the soaring cost of living," he said.
Asked about the drop in the turnout of Chinese voters, Chow said there was a decrease of between 10 and 13 per cent compared with the previous general and state elections.
He said this resulted in PH losing between 1,000 and 2,000 votes.
"Otherwise, the (PN's) majority will not be as big.
"There is also a similar drop among Indian voters," he said.