Parti Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal giving his speech during the Chinese New Year Reunion Year 2022 at Tropical Garden Restaurant in Kulai, Johor, February 23, 2022. — Picture by Hari Anggara
KOTA KINABALU, March 15 — Parti Warisan’s maiden foray into West Malaysia and electoral debut in the Johor state elections might not have garnered the results it had wanted, but it was not a total loss, says President Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.
He said the party, which began in Sabah, had only launched in Johor about three weeks prior to the polls and was testing the water.
“I knew it wasn’t a good decision. But we wanted to test the platform.
“We had not had time to set up branches and build our party. So it’s not so good for an initial foray,” said Shafie.
He was speaking to reporters after arriving from Kuala Lumpur at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.
Shafie said the party’s failure to win a single seat out of the six it contested did not mean it was a total rejection.
“Some were marginal seats or dominated by a particular race. There is a big picture to look at. Parties like DAP and PKR came to Sabah and contested for decades before they won a seat.
“PAS has been in Sabah for 30 to 40 years, contesting everywhere in Semporna, Lahad Datu, Tawau… but has still failed to win any seat,” he said, adding that poor voter turnout was also another factor.
Shafie also admitted that the party did not have a lot of voter awareness going into the polls, and that although people knew and supported him, the party did not get the same recognition.
He said that Warisan will take the lessons from the state polls and reexamine its strategy for the next general election.
“We have to go back to the drawing board,” he said.
In the March 12 polls, Warisan ran in the Mahkota, Bekok, Pekan Nenas, Permas, Johor Jaya and Bukit Batu state seats but only garnered 0.47 per cent of the total votes, or 6,532 votes.
BN won 40 of the 56 state seats up for grabs, leaving Perikatan Nasional (PN) with just three seats, Pakatan Harapan with 12 and Muda with one.