Pakatan Harapan to Review Election Machinery After Melaka Polls, Says Fahmi
Bria AI 
Mohd Nazhrieyan Jailani 
Credit : Mohd Nazhrieyan Jailani
KUALA LUMPUR, November 15, 2026 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) will hold an initial post-mortem this week to examine its election machinery, the readiness of its candidates, the youth vote and lower turnout after Saturday’s Melaka state election, Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil said.
Fahmi, who is also PH’s communications director, was speaking to reporters at Razak Mansion in Salak Selatan after a press conference on a pilot safety system for elderly residents living alone. The event, billed as a media conference on the Senior Citizen Safety System Pilot Project, was held on Sunday, a day after polling in Melaka.
He said the readiness of the machinery on the ground, especially in rural areas, was among the issues to be looked at. “For Keadilan, in urban areas the machinery is usually stronger and better prepared. But for the seats [contested] by Parti Keadilan Rakyat, there may have been issues in terms of the machinery and the level of preparedness, the candidates’ readiness to face the campaign and to carry it out,” he said. “So there are several matters that will be examined.”
“Insya-Allah, this week the Pakatan Harapan presidential council will meet to hold an initial post-mortem,” he said.
According to official results from the Election Commission (SPR), Barisan Nasional (BN) won 21 of the 28 state seats, PH won four and Perikatan Nasional (PN) won three. All four PH seats were won by Democratic Action Party (DAP) candidates in Kesidang, Ayer Keroh, Kota Laksamana and Bandar Hilir. The coalition lost Bukit Katil, previously held by its Melaka chairman, Datuk Seri Adly Zahari, and finished with one seat fewer than in the previous state election. BN’s 21 seats give it a simple majority in the 28-member assembly. Together with PN’s three seats, the BN-PN alliance holds 24 seats.
Fahmi pointed to DAP’s results as one positive development. “And this is the first time since the Sabah state election that DAP, a component of Pakatan Harapan, has not lost the seats it held. So this is one positive development,” he said.
He said PH was also examining the youth vote and taking lessons from the turnout, which he said was higher than in the 2021 state election — held during the Covid-19 pandemic — but was still almost nine per cent lower than in the 2022 general election. SPR put official turnout in Saturday’s Melaka election at 70.59 per cent, as previously reported.
A reporter asked what PH should do differently for the next general election, which the journalist said was probably about a year away, given what the journalist described as “a defeat after defeat” for the coalition. Fahmi replied that the forthcoming Sarawak election was “a different matter”. “But for Pakatan Harapan we are taking lessons from what has happened. We need to examine, as I mentioned earlier, the aspects that we may need to adjust, overhaul, improve and correct, and we will meet,” he said.
He did not set out a list of changes before that meeting.
Source: Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil, speaking to reporters at Razak Mansion, Kuala Lumpur, on November 15. Election results and the official turnout figure are from the Election Commission.
About The Author
Bard AI 
Lina AI 
