JOHOR BARU: Perikatan Nasional’s Alwiyah Talib has attributed her victory in Endau to her service record, saying she has proven her doubters wrong when they said she would not be able to defend the seat which she won under Barisan Nasional in the 2018 general election.

       Alwiyah was the only political “frog” out of four candidates who won a seat while the others – Khairuddin A. Rahim, Dr Chong Fat Full and Steven Choong – lost theirs.

       She said her victory proved that voters were not looking at a candidate’s party affiliation but the person’s service track record.

       “This is what gave me the motivation and encouragement to defend the Endau seat despite many people believing that I would lose as I had quit Umno to join Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia after GE14,” she added.

       In the Johor election, Alwiyah successfully held on to the Endau seat with a 3,041 majority in a five-cornered fight.

       But Choong, who lost the Puteri Wangsa seat in a six-cornered fight, said the state election proved that party-based politics still played a major role in getting public support.

       The Tebrau MP, who won the parliamentary seat under a PKR ticket, believed that this was one of the factors why he lost in the state election. He had quit his party to form Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM).

       “This is quite difficult for new parties such as PBM, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air and even Parti Warisan as we do not have the support base,” he added.

       Asked if his loss in the Puteri Wangsa seat would determine whether or not he would be defending his Tebrau seat in the general election, Choong said it would depend on when GE15 was held.

       “Now, our focus should be on building a strong support base for PBM to break the dominance of Barisan and Pakatan,” he said.

       In the Puteri Wangsa seat, Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) secretary-general Amira Aisya won the six-cornered fight with a majority of 7,114 votes.