☕️ PRN Review, Public Holiday and on Sanusi again

1. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢 FOR THE STATE ELECTIONS

Final tally — 3 vs 3. Status quo, on the surface.

Pakatan Harapan & Barisan Nasional coalition retains Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan while Perikatan Nasional won big in Kedah, Kelantan & Terengganu.

DAP has the highest percentage win rate, of 97.9% — having only lost one seat out of the total 47 contested. PAS ranked second, with a win rate of 82.7%. Meanwhile, newcomer Muda won 0% — all of the 20 candidates lost their deposit.

Contesting candidates lose their deposits if they fail to obtain one-eighth or 12.5% of the total number of votes counted for the state constituency involved.

A total of 96 candidates lost the deposit of RM5,000 each in the six state elections.

Half of the 22 seats won by Perikatan Nasional (PN) in Selangor were won by a margin of less than 5% — Taman Medan’s margin was the lowest, 0.07%, with 30 seat majority. Amirudin Shari said the Pakatan camp is considering challenging several seats which have been won by PN — among them are Sungai Kandis (majority of 167), Dengkil (majority of 407), Gombak Setia (majority of 58) and Taman Medan (majority 30).

24 out of 71 women candidates emerged victorious in the six state elections — 15 from PH, 8 from PN and 1 from BN.

Turnout for the six states’ election ranged between 61% to 74%, below the Election Commission’s expectation of 85% for the 9.78 mil eligible voters. Politic fatigue?

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

All hail the elections as all states except for Penang announced state holidays to celebrate the victories of their respective parties. Fortunately for employers, section 60D of the Employment Act only grants employees the right to 11 gazetted public holidays and any day designated as a public holiday by Section 8 of the Holidays Act. Thus, employers are not obligated to observe these state-level holidays.

PRN takeaways

PH-BN 3:3 PN, status quo maintainedThe results of these state elections, which also served as a litmus test for PM Anwar-led Unity Government, seemed to satisfy the latter, albeit there is obvious room for improvements. The unlikely alliance of PH-BN managed to retain its control of three states, Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. While at the same time, PN strengthened its control in the states of Kedah, Terengganu and Kelantan. Looking at the bigger picture, the unchanged status quo will bring relief to fellow public servants to continue the planned policies under the leadership of PM Anwar, and hopefully, these results will exude confidence for foreign investors to invest in the country. How the markets will perceive this new status quo will be partly reflected by the opening of Bursa this morning. 

PN solidified support, making inroads into PH’s strongholdsPN handsomely secured 146 (59.6%) out of 245 seats that were up for grabs in the state elections. In Kedah, PN won 33 out of 36 seats and wiped out UMNO from the face of the earth. In Terengganu, PN will administer the state without any opposition as the coalition sapu bersih all the ADUN seats. On top of that, PN is making a wave into the ‘progressive’ West by winning a substantial amount of seats in both Penang and Selangor. All in all, PAS was the best performer amongst the PN coalition members, winning 105 out of 127 seats contested (82.7% win percentage).

UMNO needs to do some soul-searching After suffering back-to-back major losses, UMNO must do some serious soul-searching, both in GE15 and the recent state elections. The Malay-based party only managed to win 19 out of the 108 seats contested, a mere 17.6% win rate. If UMNO is a manager in the English Premier League, he would be sacked mid-way through the season. UMNO did not win any seats in Kedah and Terengganu while only managing to score a brace in Selangor and Penang and one seat in Kelantan. However, UMNO did well in Negeri Sembilan, where the party won 14 out of 17 seats contested. UMNO vice president and Titiwangsa MP Johari Ghani said that all UMNO leaders, including the president, need to take accountability for the loss.

MUDA is PEJUANG 2.0 Syed Saddiq’s MUDA party was emulating his mentor, Tun Dr Mahathir’s former PEJUANG party, by losing in all seats it contested. MUDA was wiped out in all 19 seats the party fielded candidates in and none of its candidates managed to recoup their respective deposits. Not only the party performed poorly, but MUDA also caused anger among the public due to MUDA’s indirect role in splitting the votes in the state elections. For example, in the Sungai Kandis seat, the 1,341 votes that MUDA candidate Afriena Shaqira managed to take enabled PN’s Wan Dzahanurin to win the seat by a mere 167 ballots. Prior to these state elections, MUDA and PH used to work together, but MUDA decided to merajuk and went solo this time around. Commenting on MUDA’s performance, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang advised MUDA to explore the possibility of merging with DAP as he said that he admired the idealism of MUDA as a party.

Sheraton Move players are not dead in the water yet One of the masterminds of the infamous Sheraton Move, Azmin Ali, won the Hulu Kelang seat with a marginal 1,617 votes. The win may or may not have been due to the low voter turnout at the Hulu Kelang state constituency, where only 69% of the 71,702 registered voters cast their ballots on voting day. Azmin’s close ally, Dr Afif Bahardin, took the Taman Medan seat in Selangor by a mere 30 votes. So, every vote matters.

We hear the scream of the child  - neighbours of the abused childNeighbours of the allegedly abused seven-year-old boy in Pasir Gudang, Johor, stated that they had heard the screams of the kid for the past two weeks. Due to these frequent ‘screaming’ episodes, the neighbourhood association agreed to confront the boy’s guardian, both females, a 27-year-old relative of the victim and her 30-year-old foreign friend. When confronted, the women raised their voices and claimed that their actions were meant to discipline the child. The neighbours then proceeded to report the matter to the police after they noticed numerous bruises, scratches and suspected burn marks.

While on the topic of child abuse, a Kota Kinabalu childcare centre worker is under investigation as a viral 2-minute clip showed that the worker had apparently slapped and hit a four-year-old child multiple times, including with a metal object. In response to the rising incidents of child abuse at childcare centres, Women and Family Minister Nancy Shukri stated that Putrajaya is mulling over whether to impose a mandatory condition where all childcare centres must install closed circuit TVs (CCTV) before they can renew their licenses. At the moment, CCTVs are required under the Child Care Centre Act 1984 and the Child Care Centre Regulations 2012. So, it is just a matter of enforcement and not the legislation itself.

Here we are, on Sanusi, againWhen casting his vote, the caretaker Kedah MB happily posed for photoshoots by media photographers in Sik and showed off his marked ballot paper. As innocuous as that sounds, voting is supposed to be done in secrecy, and Sanusi’s action could amount to an offence under the Election Offences Act 1954, which states that no elector who has voted in any election shall, in any proceedings, questioning the election, be required to state for whom he has voted for. The offence could be punished with imprisonment of up to 1 year, a fine of up to RM3k, or both.

Sanusi claimed that he did not intentionally show his marked ballot paper, but due to him turning here and there to entertain requests from the media for photos, the ballot paper accidentally opened. He even accused the media of being unethical for choosing the picture of all to show the open ballot paper. Watch the video here to see for yourself how accidental the incident was. Hope you will have a good laugh, matching his reasoning to his actions to his logic to his position as Kedah MB. 

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Ecuador Presidential Candidate Murder - of Colombians and gangsta leaderFollowing the brutal murder of top presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio last Wednesday, six suspects — all Colombians accused by police to be linked to criminal groups - have been charged with the murder. Officials have blamed organised crime behind the murder. A week before Villavicencio’s murder, the presidential candidate accused an influential gang leader, Adolfo “Fito” Macias, who is already behind bars,  of threatening him and his team. Villavicencio is a vocal critic of corruption and organised crime in Ecuador. 

Though a bit too late with the death of Villavicencio, authorities in the South American nation have transferred Fito to a maximum security prison for the “safety of citizens and detainees”, according to President Guillermo Lasso. The process involved an absurd number of personnel — about 4,000 soldiers and police officers — to relocate Fito to a maximum security prison within the same complex. President Guillermo has also declared a nationwide state of emergency for 60 days (this reason makes sense, not Muhyiddin’s reason).

Once-peaceful Ecuador, situated next to Colombia (see the country here on the map), has seen its homicide rate quadruple from 5.8 per 100,000 people in 2018 to 26.7 last year due to increasing competition between rival drug trafficking gangs.

Deals, deals, deals

• China’s largest home appliance maker Midea has set its eyes for a Hong Kong IPO next year. The company, valued at USD55 bil, plans to sell 10% of its total capital in the listing. Midea has been on an acquisition trail to expand its footprint beyond China: acquired Toshiba Corp’s home appliance business in 2016, German robotics Kuka AG and also attempted to acquire Swedish Electrolux AB but to no avail. 

• Football club FC Barcelona is hiving off its content creation business, Barca Media, to list on the Nasdaq with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) of Mountain Partners, more commonly known as ‘blank check’ company, in a deal worth USD1 bil. The deal is subject to the approval of the club members* and the SPAC’s shareholders. Barca Media controls the club’s digital media assets, including video content, esports, and social media, with 421 mil followers globally.

• Sonic, the Hedgehog owner Sega, has successfully acquired Rovio, the creator of the Angry Birds franchise, for EUR700 mil (USD770 mil), following 96.3% of its shareholders accepting the deal, above the 90% minimum threshold required. Rovio employs over 500 people and generated EUR317.7 mil in revenue in 2022 with an adjusted net profit of EUR31.4 bil. Since taking the world by storm with the release of Angry Birds in 2009, Rovio has failed to replicate its success beyond this. Sonic x Angry Birds crossover, perhaps?

Shorts

1. DBS’ SGD1 bil donation to the poor and underprivilegedSoutheast Asia’s largest bank by assets will allocate up to SGD1 bil (RM3.3 bil) over the next 10 years from 2024 to improve the livelihoods of the low-income and underprivileged in Singapore and other markets, including India and China. Malaysian banks are welcome to launch their Madani Donation, especially when PMX wants to eliminate hardcore poverty by the end of this year.

2. Former US President Barack Obama wrote of his homosexual fantasyThe New York Post obtained a redacted portion of a 1982 love letter written by Barack Obama to his ex-girlfriend, Alex McNear. Then 21, Obama wrote of his own “androgynous” mind and “make love to men daily but in the imagination”.

3. Disgraced FTX founder sent to jail, bail revokedSam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, which used to be one the world’s largest crypto exchanges, had his bail revoked and sent to jail after a US judge found probable cause that he tampered with witnesses at least twice. The judge said he “crossed the line” by sharing private writings of former romantic partner Caroline Ellison, who has pleaded guilty in the fall of FTX. An earlier attempt of witness tampering saw him asking the general counsel of an FTX US affiliate to “vet things with each other”. Read: What is witness tampering?

4. Italy could host Musk vs Zuck cage fightItaly’s culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said he had spoken to Elon Musk about hosting the showdown as a charity event, with the millions of proceeds to be donated to children’s hospitals. If you are thinking Colosseum, where the gladiators fought in ancient times, that venue has been ruled out. Musk is 52 and Mark Zuckerberg is 39.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Celebrity Azwan Ali (aka Diva AA) gave an entertaining interview on who he voted for in the state election. Btw, he’s the brother of Azmin Ali.

2. Selangor 2018 vs Selangor 2023. Amirudin Shari should hang this in his office as a reminder.