SEREMBAN: Negri Sembilan has once again became a Barisan Nasional (BN) dominated state when the coalition managed to seize two seats and defend the three seats it won in the last general election.
The two parliamentary seats that were successfully wrested from the opposition in the 15th General Election (GE15) were Kuala Pilah and Tampin through Datuk Adnan Abu Hassan and Datuk Esam Mohd Isa respectively.
The three seats successfully defended by BN were Rembau, through Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan; Jelebu through Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias and Jempol through Datuk Shamsulkahar Mohd Deli.
The success will see BN regaining control of five of the eight parliamentary seats contested in Negri Sembilan.
Three more parliamentary seats, namely Seremban, Rasah and Port Dickson, were won by Pakatan Harapan (PH).
Mohamad, as expected, won the Rembau parliamentary seat with a large majority after garnering 19,897 votes, despite contesting for the first time for the parliamentary seat.
The BN deputy chairman and election director won 53,075 votes to eliminate four other challengers namely Jufitri Joha from Pakatan Harapan (PH), Mohd Nazree Mohd Yunus (Perikatan Nasional), S Tinagaran (Parti Sosial Malaysia) and Ramly Awaluddin (Pejuang).
In GE14, the Rembau parliamentary seat was contested by Khairy Jamaluddin who won with a majority of 4,364 after garnering 36,096 votes.
However, Khairy was moved to the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat to make way for Mohamad.
Traditionally, the state was a stronghold for BN but following the massive voter rejection in GE14, the party lost the Kuala Pilah and Tampin seats.
Mohamad, who is also the state Umno chairman expressed his confidence that BN would be able to take back the Tampin and Kuala Pilah parliamentary seats in GE15.
He expressed his gratitude to voters for the success in ensuring that the Rembau seat belongs to BN for the next five years.
"Thank you also to the entire Umno-BN Rembau machinery, Friends of BN Rembau, the Election Commission and all those involved in helping the campaign," he said.