2013 Kelantan state election

2013 Kelantan state election

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All 45 seats in the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly 23 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat Mustapa Mohamed Party PAS UMNO Alliance Pakatan Rakyat Barisan Nasional Leader since 1990 2009 Leader's seat Chempaka Ayer Lanas Last election 39 6 Seats before 38 7 Seats won 33 12 Seat change 6 6 Popular vote 425,291 [a] 343,416 [b] Percentage 55.26% 44.62%
Menteri Besar before election Nik Aziz Nik Mat Pakatan Rakyat (PAS) Elected Menteri Besar Ahmad Yakob Pakatan Rakyat (PAS)

The 13th Kelantan state election were held on 5 May 2013. Polling took place in 45 constituencies throughout the Malaysian state of Kelantan, with each electing a State Assemblyman to the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly. The election was conducted by the Malaysian Election Commission. The state election was held concurrently with the 2013 Malaysian general election.

Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), the governing party of the state, won the election with 32 seats. Its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ally, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), won 1 seat, while the main opposition party of the state Barisan Nasional won the remaining 12 seats.

This election is the only time the DAP-PAS-PKR coalition is referred as Pakatan Rakyat during the Kelantan state election campaign (although each party is contesting using their own name and logo), and also the final Kelantan state election which the three parties works as a coalition; PR splits in 2015 due to disagreements between DAP and PAS.

Background

Nik Aziz Nik Mat the Menteri Besar of Kelantan, announced the dissolution of Kelantan State Assembly on 3 April 2013, 11;55pm (Malaysia time), after receiving consent from Sultan of Kelantan. ^[1]

The state assembly were scheduled to be automatically dissolved on 28 April 2013, before the announcement by Nik Aziz.

Political parties

Barisan Nasional, spearheaded by United Malays National Organization (UMNO), were targeting to win 23 seats to wrestle back the state control from PAS. ^[2] BN announced its candidate for all 45 state seats on 15 April 2013, lead by its state chief Mustapa Mohamed who is contesting in Ayer Lanas. ^{[3] [4]}

PAS, together with PKR, unveiled its candidate for all state seats on 17 April 2013. ^[5] PAS who have governed the state for the last 23 years uninterrupted, were led by Nik Aziz Nik Mat, PAS Spiritual Leader, PAS Kelantan state commissioner, and the Menteri Besar since 1990. Democratic Action Party (DAP), the other party in the PR bloc, is not participating in the state election due to perceived negative view of the party from the state's voters. ^[6]

Campaign

BN launched its manifesto for Kelantan titled 'Rakyat Dihati, Janji Ditepati' (People at Heart, Promises Kept) on 11 April 2013 by the BN Kelantan leader, Mustapa Mohamed. ^[7]

PAS meanwhile launched its manifesto titled 'Keberkatan, Kemakmuran dan Kebajikan' (Blessings, Prosperity and Welfare) on 23 April 2013. ^[8]

Results

Party or alliance				Seats	+/–
	Pakatan Rakyat		Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party	32	–6
			People's Justice Party	1	0
		Total		33	-6
	Barisan Nasional		United Malays National Organisation	12	+6
			Malaysian Chinese Association	0	0
		Total		12	+6
	Independents			0	0
Total				45	0

Aftermath

Ahmad Yakob, MLA for Pasir Pekan and the Deputy State Commissioner of PAS Kelantan, were sworn in as the new Menteri Besar of Kelantan on 6 May 2013, replacing Nik Aziz Nik Mat who has held the position since 1990. ^[9] The appointment of Ahmad Yakob were agreed by the PAS leadership as requested by Nik Aziz, who stepped down because of health issues. ^[10] Nik Aziz later died in 2015, and 2015 Chempaka by-election were held, which PAS won.

2014 Pengkalan Kubor by-election were held after the death of its assemblymen. BN retained the seat after it won the by election. In 2017, BN loses the Nenggiri seat after a voting to declare the seat vacant by the State Assembly, due to bankruptcy of its BN assemblymen. However no by-elections were held as there is less than 2 years before the expiry of the current assembly. ^[11]

In 2015, the PR coalition was disbanded, due to disagreements between PAS and DAP over the former's insistence to implement the Islamic penal code, known as hudud , in Kelantan. ^[12] Also in 2015, a group of progressives in PAS led by Mohamad Sabu exits the party after losing in the party election, later forming National Trust Party (Amanah). Amanah joined forces with DAP and PKR in forming a successor coalition to PR, later known as Pakatan Harapan (PH) after Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), a splinter party of UMNO dissidents, joined the coalition in 2017. ^[13] The state government were not affected by the split, as PAS holds the majority and only one MLA for PKR switched to the opposition, though later MLA for Salor Husam Musa joined Amanah after being sacked by PAS in 2016. ^{[14] [15]}

Notes

1. All the figures of votes and seats are a combined result of PAS,PKR and DAP.
2. All the figures of votes and seats are a combined result of all the component parties in BN.

References

1. "Nik Aziz Umum Pembubaran DUN Kelantan - Semasa | mStar". www.mstar.com.my (in Malay). 5 April 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
2. "BN Kelantan Sasar Menang 23 Kerusi DUN, Lapan Parlimen - Rencana | mStar". www.mstar.com.my. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
3. "Pemilihan Calon BN Kelantan Atas Dasar Kehendak Parti Dan Rakyat - Mustapa - Semasa | mStar". www.mstar.com.my (in Malay). 16 April 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
4. "Mustapa Pertahan Kerusi Parlimen Jeli, Tanding DUN Air Lanas - Semasa | mStar". www.mstar.com.my (in Malay). 16 April 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
5. "PRU-13: PAS Kelantan Umum 43 Calon Kerusi DUN, 14 Calon Parlimen, 16 Muka Baru - Semasa | mStar". www.mstar.com.my (in Malay). 18 April 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
6. AR, Zurairi (26 April 2018). "Why it's unrealistic for DAP to contest in Kelantan". www.malaymail.com. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
7. "Manifesto BN Kelantan Daulatkan Islam, Tidak Pinggir Kaum Minoriti - Semasa | mStar". www.mstar.com.my (in Malay). 12 April 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
8. "PAS Umum Sembilan Tawaran Untuk Rakyat Kelantan Dalam Manifesto PRU-13 - Semasa | mStar". www.mstar.com.my (in Malay). 24 April 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
9. "Ahmad Yakob ganti Nik Aziz". Borneo Post Online (in Malay). 6 May 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
10. "Pemilihan Sebagai MB Kelantan Atas Permintaan Nik Aziz - Ahmad Yakob - Semasa | mStar". www.mstar.com.my (in Malay). 7 May 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
11. "Mat Yusoff loses Nenggiri seat". The Star Online. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
12. hermesauto (2015-06-18). "Break up of Malaysia's opposition bloc Pakatan Rakyat: What happened and what's next?". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
13. Liew Chin Tong (2017-08-15). "The Day Pakatan Harapan Found its Footing". Penang Monthly. Penang Institute. Archived from the original on 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
14. Asyraf Muhammad (6 May 2016). "Pas pecat Husam Musa" . Retrieved 6 May 2016.
15. "Husam joins Amanah, says PAS is sailing to nowhere". Malaysiakini. 30 August 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.

Further reading

Muhamad Takiyuddin Ismail & Sity Daud (2016). Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13: Kesinambungan Politik Baharu, Kekentalan Politik Lama, UUM Press. ISBN 978-967-0876-42-9