SEREMBAN: The outcome of the polls yesterday may be a sweet victory of sorts for Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) when the pact jointly secured a two-thirds majority in the Negri Sembilan state legislative assembly.
The success, however, may be short-lived to only one term if the PH-BN does not deliver all of its promises to the people in the state.
Of the 31 state seats that went to the parties in the unity government, 10 of them were won with 1,000 and below in majority votes.
A close fight took place in Juasseh, Kota, Ampangan and Seri Menanti, where the winner won the seats below 500 in majority votes.
It was a neck-and-neck battle for BN in Juasseh when the coalition's candidate, Puan Sri Bibi Sharliza Mohd Khalid, won with a slim majority of 78 votes.
The wife of former Negri Sembilan menteri besar Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad polled 4,549 votes against Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) supreme council member Datuk Eddin Syazlee Shith, who obtained 4,471 votes.
It was also a close race in Kota when BN's Suhaimi Aini won the seat with a 135-vote majority against Shukri Shukor of Perikatan Nasional (PN).
Tengku Zamrah Tengku Sulaiman of PKR may have sprung a suprise when she defeated the Ampangan seat's incumbent Datuk Dr Mohamad Rafie Ab Malek, who contested as indepedent, in a three-cornered fight.
The majority votes polled by Tengku Zamrah, however, was below 329.
Observers also expressed the same concern for the contest where BN's candidate for the Seri Menanti seat, Sufian Maradzi won with a 370-vote majority against PN's Jalam Salam.
Apart from these four seats, parties in the unity government won Sungai Lui, Klawang, Serting, Palong, Jeram Padang, Lenggeng, and Senaling with a majority vote of between 500 and 1,000.