PH's Dr Raja retains Sri Tanjung for second term after winning five-cornered fight

SHAH ALAM – Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Datuk Dr G.Rajasekaran has retained the Sri Tanjung state seat for a second term after securing victory in a five-cornered contest in the Negeri Sembilan state election, according to official results announced by the Election Commission (EC).

The PKR incumbent, better known as Dr Raja, won the seat with 6,702 votes, defeating Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate A.Acuthan, who received 5,367 votes.

Other candidates in the five-cornered contest were Bersatu candidate Leevinesh Murugan, who obtained 618 votes, Independent candidate Islah Wahyudi Zaidudin with 529 votes and another Independent candidate Datuk A.Saravanan, who received 73 votes.

Dr Raja secured the seat with a majority of 1,335 votes. Sri Tanjung recorded 13,289 votes cast out of 19,590 registered voters.

The victory enabled Dr Raja to defend the constituency despite PH losing control of the Negeri Sembilan state government to the BN-Perikatan Nasional (PN) alliance.

In the previous 2023 state election, Dr Raja won Sri Tanjung with a larger majority of 3,996 votes.

The result came as BN-PN secured a two-thirds majority in the Negeri Sembilan state election, ending PH’s two-term administration in the state.

The victory also continued BN’s momentum following its strong performance in the Johor state election, where the coalition secured a dominant win.

Political analysts previously attributed BN-PN’s success in Negeri Sembilan to several factors, including the consolidation of Malay votes, dissatisfaction towards PH at both state and federal levels and the cooperation between Umno and Pas that reduced vote fragmentation.