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SHAH ALAM - Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun's decision to leave his long-held Sikamat seat and contest Linggi was a high-risk electoral gamble that ultimately backfired, a political analyst said.
O2 Research head Anis Anwar Suhaimi said the move reflected Pakatan Harapan's (PH) attempt to expand its electoral footprint, but carried considerable risk as Linggi had long been regarded as a Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold.
"The decision for Aminuddin Harun to contest Linggi was undoubtedly a high-risk political strategy. Linggi has historically been considered a stronghold for BN and represents a difficult battleground for PH.
"From an electoral strategy perspective, a party leader should ideally be placed in a competitive but manageable constituency rather than a traditional stronghold of the opposing party.
"Moving from Sikamat, where he had established a strong political base, to Linggi represented a significant gamble," he told Sinar Daily.
Anis said the move also limited Aminuddin's ability to capitalise on his stature as the incumbent Menteri Besar, as much of his campaign effort had to be focused on retaining Linggi.
"By contesting in Linggi, Aminuddin's campaign resources and political attention were concentrated heavily on defending and winning that constituency.
"This reduced his ability to utilise his position as a former Menteri Besar to campaign more broadly across Negeri Sembilan," he said.
Looking back, Anis said PH could have opted to field its key leader in a more competitive constituency rather than one where BN enjoyed a clear structural advantage.
"A safer strategic option may have been to contest in a marginal or grey area rather than a black area where the structural advantage belonged to BN," he said.
Aminuddin's defeat followed his decision to leave Sikamat, which he had represented since 2018, to contest Linggi in a bid to expand PH's influence into a constituency long regarded as BN territory.
The Aug 1 Negeri Sembilan state election saw BN reclaim control of the state after winning 18 seats, while its ally Perikatan Nasional (PN) secured the remaining seven, giving the coalition a commanding 25-seat majority.
In Linggi, BN candidate Faizal Ramli defeated Aminuddin, securing 9,139 votes to the PH candidate's 6,163 votes.
