DAP's 98pc win rate in state elections shows why it's the best-performing party in Pakatan

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — With a win rate of about 98 per cent, DAP has emerged as the best-performing party in Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the recent elections held in six states.

Of the 47 candidates the party fielded across 245 constituencies, only the one fielded in Derga, Kedah had lost.

Two-term incumbent and Kedah DAP chief Tan Kok Yew lost to Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Muhamad Amri by 3,662 votes, according to Election Commission (EC) data.

However, in the neighbouring state Penang, which is traditionally regarded as the DAP’s stronghold due to its high percentage of ethnic Chinese is where the party won most seats.

DAP clinched nearly half of the state’s 40 seats with 19 victories there, where it made a successful defence for all of its seats in the state.

However, its allies PKR and Amanah did not fare as well, with seven and one seat respectively, a worse performance than in the previous state election, in which PKR won 14 seats and Amanah two.

DAP’s partner in the unity government Umno garnered two seats, making the PH-BN total 27 out of 40.

Meanwhile, DAP won the most seats in Selangor with 15 victories, displacing PKR as the most dominant party in the country’s richest state.

Similar to Penang, PKR and Amanah failed in outdoing their previous performances. This time, PKR won 12 seats to the 19 it had in the restructure after the Sheraton Move while Amanah maintained its number of 5 seats.

BN also lost all but two of the 12 seats it contested, winning only Sungai Air Tawar and Dusun Tua.

At the same time, several of DAP’s candidates enjoyed large majorities in their victories.

Kinrara is a developed urban township in Puchong where ethnic Chinese make up the bulk of its residents (50.2 per cent), according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s (DoSM) data on its portal Kawasanku.

It is also where Selangor DAP secretary Ng Sze Han won with 71,290 votes, his strong lead assured by a majority of 54,535 votes.

Other DAP candidates in Selangor have also won with large majorities, such as Rajiv Rishyakaran in Bukit Gasing (24,972 majority), Michelle Ng Mei Sze in Subang Jaya (51,191 majority) and Jamaliah Jamaluddin in Bandar Utama (35,446 majority).

Following the trend of previous elections, DAP has seen strong support in urban, mixed-race seats or in places with a high percentage of ethnic Chinese voters.