Bersatu wiped out, losing all seven contests

Bersatu is on course to be wiped out at the Melaka election, with early unofficial results showing losses in all seven seats contested.

The party, a component of Perikatan Nasional, contested under its own banner again following its fall-out with coalition leader PAS. It looks set to suffer a repeat of its poor outing in Negeri Sembilan.

The party led by former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin fielded seven candidates, including former Senate deputy president Ali Mohamad in Kelebang, but failed to record a win.

While Bersatu clashed with Pakatan Harapan in three seats despite their electoral pact, analysts saw this as a strategic move to draw away Malay votes from the Barisan Nasional-PN alliance and give PH the edge, namely in Ayer Keroh, Kelebang and Pengkalan Batu.

This strategy may have worked in Ayer Keroh, where DAP is on course to retain its mixed-seat stronghold, but it failed to produce similar results in Kelebang and Pengkalan Batu, with BN winning both seats.

Bersatu also did not pose much of a challenge to BN and PN in the four other seats of Lendu, Sungai Udang, Pantai Kundor and Bemban; the party is on course to lose by thousands of votes there.

The only consolation for the party is that more of its candidates are likely to retain their election deposit, compared with the Negeri Sembilan polls when only one candidate managed to do so.

With Bersatu on the verge of an exit from PN, the party does not have much time to figure out how to approach the next general election, and a growing prospect of a parliamentary wipeout.

While it has stated the need for cooperation with others, including possibly PH, DAP leaders have been openly resistant to working with Bersatu again given the scars left by the Sheraton Move in February 2020.

The infamous political reconfiguration spearheaded by Muhyiddin and former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, among others, had led to the collapse of the PH-led federal government in 2020.