☕️ Post GE15 Special

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE FOR GE15

A lot of firsts for the country this time around!

5,823,931 votes went to Pakatan Harapan. The final voter turnout is 73.89%, according to the Election Commission (EC). That’s approximately 15.5 million votes — the highest in the country’s history.

220 results were reported yesterday with a hung parliament — in other words, no majority by each coalition. The first time this has ever happened. As per Malaysiakini’s reporting, the biggest loser in GE15 — in terms of the number of seats lost prior to the dissolution — is Barisan Nasional, losing 12 seats. Pakatan Harapan was the second biggest loser, losing eight (8) seats. Perikatan Nasional surprised the nation by gaining 34 seats.

Two parliamentary seats’ had no results — Padang Serai due to the passing of one of the candidates, Karupaiya Mutusami, last week and the election has been postponed. The seat for Baram, Sarawak, was also impacted due to the bad weather conditions and flooding in several areas — 11 polling stations had to be put on hold.

Padang Serai’s election will happen on Dec 7, whereas the Baram election is to be confirmed.

369 parliamentary candidates lost their deposits after obtaining less than one-eight of the total votes — Tun Mahathir Mohamad being one of them. He failed to defend his Langkawi seat, garnering only 4,566 votes out of 48,123 in a five-cornered contest. Eight candidates in Batu lost their deposits as well after Prabakaran M Parameswaran of PH secured 45,716 votes (52.46%). Zuraida Kamaruddin also lost her deposit after only securing 4,589 votes.

The highest number of votes goes to the Damansara MP Gobind Singh Deo after he secured 142,875 votes for his seat. Both of his opponents lost their deposits — the second closest candidate was from PN, getting 18,256 votes. A massive majority of 124,619.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Two coalitions claiming they have the numbers

The first coalition to claim they had the numbers was PH at 3 am the morning after GE15 and the entire coalition went eerily quiet without further announcement. Not even a sound from Rafizi Ramli, who is usually vocal, nor from any other component members of PH. It seems like a coordinated effort to keep things under wrap.  

Watch: Anwar Ibrahim declaring PH has secured a simple majority.

GPS then announced it would form a government together with PN, BN and Sabah’s GRS, with Muhyiddin chosen as the coalition’s PM candidate. Muhyiddin, in a separate statement, confirmed GPS’ announcement; however, his statement was conspicuously missing BN as among the coalition backing him. Muhyiddin’s statement was followed by Ahmad Zahid’s statement denying any negotiation to support PN to form the new government and warned members not to defy party orders or risk losing their membership and breaking the anti-hopping law. Without BN’s support, PN+GRS+GPS would not have the numbers to meet the simple majority of 112. 

When met outside his house at night, Anwar Ibrahim told the press he has the numbers but was coy in disclosing which parties outside PH supported him. PH, with 82 seats, is short of 30 seats and BN has that exact 30 seats to bring to the table. BN and PH sources confirmed there will be a meeting today at 10 am in the Seri Pacific Hotel.

Watch: Anwar Ibrahim reiterating he still has the numbers. 

By today, we will know which coalition will lead the country — Istana Negara has instructed the coalitions to submit their prime ministerial candidates by 2 pm today. 

Godspeed Malaysia.

The actual hot seats:

1. Sungai Buloh: PH’s R Ramanan beat BN’s Khairy Jamaluddin by 2,697 votes in a seven-corner fight. In GE14, PH had a majority of 26,634. KJ really gave PH a run for its money.

2. Bagan Datuk: UMNO president and BN chairman (at the time of writing), Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, beat PH’s giant slayer Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin by only 348 votes.

3. Putrajaya: Incumbent Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor lost his stronghold seat to PN’s Radzi Jidin (former education minister).

4. Permatang Pauh: PN’s Muhammad Fawwaz Mohamad Jan from PAS knocked Nurul Izzah off the perch by winning with a majority of 5,381 votes, dealing a blow to the 42-year-old, who celebrated her birthday on Nov 19. The Permatang Pauh seat has long been Anwar's stronghold. Not anymore.View: Fawwaz’s CV

5. Simpang Renggam: PH’s Mazlee Malik failed to convince Simpang Renggam voters as the seat fell to former Johor MB — BN’s Hasni Mohammad. Hasni received won by a slim margin — 1,821 votes.

6. Kulim Bandar Baharu: PKR’s secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail lost his seat to PN’s Roslan Hashim, surprising many.

7. Tambun: Ahmad Faizul “Peja” Azumu lost his seat to PH’s leader Anwar Ibrahim, who polled 32,025 votes.

8. Alor Gajah: Former Malacca Chief Minister Adly Zahari fought the odds and won the seat with a slim 890-vote majority. BN’s Shahril Hamdan, UMNO’s information chief, lost to Adly.

9. Not-so-honourable mentionsi. Azmin Ali lost in Gombak.ii. Rashid Hasnon lost in Batu Pahat.iii. Zuraida Kamaruddin lost in Ampang.iv. Rina “Doraemon” Mohd Harun lost in Sepang.In summary, not so good outcome for most of Langkah Sheraton’s ‘representatives’ from PH. As for Saifuddin Abdullah, he successfully defended his Indera Mahkota seat.

Everyone wants Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to step downJohor’s MB Onn Hafiz Ghazi was the first UMNO member to request Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s resignation after the BN’s dismal performance. Ghazi said it was clear Malays had rejected UMNO. Ghazi added Zahid should follow the footsteps of his predecessor, Najib Razak.

Shahril Hamdan also called for Zahid’s resignation. Khairy Jamaluddin took his opportunity to do the same — saying the Zahid should resign immediately. KJ added UMNO’s reform cannot be delayed any longer.

BN’s component parties, MCA and MIC, have also joined calls asking Zahid to resign gracefully as chairman, calling him a “liability” to the coalition. MCA said they have lost confidence in Zahid’s leadership.

On the other hand, former PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob has remained silent. No news from him.

Research groups mistaken B for PFitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research and Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) both predicted that Barisan Nasional (BN) will emerge victorious in the general election. Hahaha. However, on a serious note — they might be the Kingmaker as both PH and PN need BN’s 30 seats to form a formidable majority.

MH17 victims’ families finally have an answerA Dutch court has convicted Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko of murder and intentionally causing the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014. The first three were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia. Judges found the three convicts could all be held responsible for transporting the BUK missile from a military base in Russia. The court ruled there was “ample evidence” to show the missile brought the plane down.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

FTX: The mess unearthed by its bankruptcy advisor  

The bankrupt crypto exchange filled its first-day declaration in its bankruptcy filing - the company is in a state of shambles. Its new CEO John J. Ray III, who’s leading the restructuring, did not mince his words, saying that he has not seen such a “complete failure of corporate controls” in his career. Coming from someone who had to deal with the Enron mega scandal, FTX must be an absolute wreck. 

First-day declaration is a document submitted by the advisors working in the bankrupt company laying out their story on what happened leading to the bankruptcy.

Some discovery:

1. Disbursements and expense claims were made through chat and approved with emojis.

2. The company has no accounting department.

3. Disgraced CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and others received USD3.3 bil in loans from the company. 

4. Corporate funds were used to buy properties in the Bahamas, and other personal items, and worse still, certain real estate assets were recorded in the personal name of  FTX employees. 

Read: FTX’s first-day declaration 

Once high-flying startup founder sentenced to 11.25 years in jail

Along the same lines of fraud, the disgraced founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, has been sentenced to 135 months (11.25 years) in jail, with three years of supervised release for the 38-year-old. If this is any indication, SBF & Co might be staring at a way longer prison sentence, given the FTX fraud, is a lot more complex and has inflicted damages way more significant than in the case of Theranos.

Sweden: Nord Stream pipeline an act of “gross sabotage”

The Swedish government’s investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosion damaged concluded that it was an act of “gross sabotage”. Investigations found “traces of explosives” on several “foreign objects” found at the site. However, the government stopped short of accusing any individuals though other Western officials were less hesitant to blame Russia for this act, whilst Russia blamed the US and its allies. An analysis here of who could have caused this explosion. 

FIFA President slams Western countries over their hypocrisy

The Qatar World Cup is here and what a way to kick start it with FIFA President Gianni Infantino (Swiss Italian descendent) slamming Western countries in a one-hour monologue in a press conference on Saturday of “hypocrisy” and “racism” as they criticised Qatar over its treatment of migrant workers and human rights record.

View: Group, table standing and match schedule. Malaysia is 5 hours ahead of Doha. 

Stay in the house of Airbnb co-founder, Airbnb 2022 Winter Release

In a bid to promote more people to hosts on Airbnb and that it isn’t risky, Airbnb and co-founder Brian Chesky is listing a bedroom in his San Francisco home for zero bucks (free!) and you will be able to hang out with him, go gyming and even having him to bake you cookies. The room is fully booked through March 2023.

In its 2022 Winter Release, Airbnb will be launching a new service called Airbnb Setup that connects new hosts with superhosts in the area to walk them through the process. To protect against damages, Airbnb is also launching Aircover, which verifies the identity of all Airbnb users and offers damage protection of up to USD3 mil.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. The beauty of art. Interpret it yourself. If you didn’t get it, read here.

2. Two football greats, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, came together in a photoshoot ad for Louis Vuitton. It was posted on both their IG accounts, with Ronaldo getting 32.3 mil likes and Messi getting 25.5 mil likes. The Guinness world record for the most likes of a single post on IG goes to “world_record_egg”, posted by the Egg Gang, which got 55.9 mil likes as of 20 Nov 2022.