SHAH ALAM (May 6): Pakatan Rakyat has retained Selangor by winning 44 out of 56 state seats in the 13th general election, bettering its 2008 results.

Pakatan had won 32 seats in the 2008 General Election. This time around, DAP and PAS clinched 15 state seats each while PKR won 13 state seats.

For Parliamentary seats, DAP and PAS clinched 4 each and PKR won 8.

Several bigwigs lost their seats in the state, namely Sepang BN candidate Datuk Seri Mohd Zin Mohamed by a 1,104 majority while PAS’ central committee member Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad failed to retain his Kuala Selangor seat by a mere 460 votes.

Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim won the Port Klang seat by a majority 2,994 votes, thus possibly guaranteeing that he will be reappointed Menteri Besar of Selangor for a second term.

Pakatan managed to clinch several seats BN won in 2008, such as Dusun Tua, Taman Templer and Sementa.

Meanwhile, newcomers such as DAP’s Tiew Way Keng, Ng Sze Han, Rajiv Rishyakaran and Yeo Bee Yin won the Teratai, Kinrara, Bukit Gasing and Damansara state states seats respectively.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) lost both its state seats - Kota Damansara and Semenyih - largely to a split of votes between fellow PAS and PKR candidates respectively.

Former DAP member Janice Lee also did not win the contest for the Teratai seat.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said the win justifies Selangor’s commitment towards policies that focuses on welfare of the people as well as a transparent and accountable government.

“People of all races backed the state, although there were some problems in the Malay heartland of Kuala Selangor, etc,” he told fz.com.

“I think (caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Najib’s (Abdul Razak) head is on the line, having failed to win back Selangor,” he added.

Najib, as Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, had appointed himself as BN Selangor election chief, in what many saw as a direct attempt to wrest the state from Pakatan.

He had also spent a significant amount of time campaigning in the state, hoping to sway voters to BN.

The effort failed, in Selangor at least. BN however, managed to get enough seats nationwide to form the federal government.

It was not a victory that was much welcome by the coalition, as it failed to regain the two-thirds majority it had been hankering for.

At the Umno HQ in PWTC, where the media and BN members and supporters waited for hours for Najib to announce the formation of a BN government, there was that mood of "thank god we won that much".

"Syukur kita masih lagi kerajaan tapi tak berbaloi, (Thank god we are still the government but it was not worth what we put in)," said a top Umno gun, who did not want to be named.

The fall of Selangor again (with an extra two seats from 2008), the slim wins of Perak and Negeri Sembilan as well as still losing Kelantan and Kenang with substantial majorities, was obviously not expected.

"We have to work harder for the next five years to get Selangor back. We have given everything to people of Selangor - what more is there to give? They are just plain ungrateful," said an Umno member.

BN had targeted selangor as their main prize this GE and had poured in billions of ringgit and Najib’s personal touch in an effort to get the most developed state back from PR.

Even Najib's speech pointing the finger at the Chinese for causing the “tsunami” and blaming the simple majority on provocations of racism and "lies" of the opposition, showed that leading the BN to a simple majority was a hollow victory for him.

He also sounded tired when instead of a rah-rah victory speech, he asked all to stop the politicking and work together for vision 2020.

Najib also warned the opposition not to resort to street demonstrations and to just accept the GE results.

And despite much shouting from Umno members gathered at the party headquarters for Najib to declare a public holiday on Monday, he did not do so. Obviously the BN chairman did not think there was much to celebrate.