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SHAH ALAM – Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Mohd Ridhwan Mohd Ali won the Ayer Molek state seat (N18) with a majority of 13,108 votes in the 16th Melaka state election, today, according to official results from the Election Commission.
Ridhwan polled 16,312 votes, or 83.6 per cent of the 19,516 cast. Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Muhammad Hakimin Mokhtar received 3,204 votes (16.4 per cent) in a straight fight.
Ridhwan, 40, is Umno Hang Tuah Jaya division chief and the son of Melaka Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Mohd Ali Rustam.
He had one earlier outing at the ballot box, when he lost the Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary seat to Adam Adli Abd Halim, now Deputy Higher Education Minister, by 8,638 votes in the 15th General Election.
His record outside politics includes serving as president of Gerakan 4B Malaysia and of the Melaka Malay Football Association, as principal of the World Youth Foundation and as a National Scout Council member. He was also named Tokoh Maal Hijrah Melaka in the youth category.
Records of past assemblies list Mohd Ali Rustam as the Ayer Molek representative for the 1986-1990 term, which gives the seat a family history for the new assemblyman.
Hakimin, 35, was making his first bid for office. His campaign pledged to turn Ayer Molek into an education hub and to create jobs for local residents.
Both men courted young voters in the semi-urban constituency. Ridhwan also named job opportunities as the basic need of young people in the area and said he had long been working on the ground in Ayer Molek.
Ridhwan’s winning majority is far bigger than the 2,802 votes BN won the seat by in the 2021 state election, according to a campaign-period profile. A straight fight in 2026 contrasts with the multi-cornered 2021 contest.
