Kuala Lumpur: The Sabah state election exposed a wide disconnect between the number of Umno members and the votes the party actually received at the polls, says secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.
Asyraf said Umno entered the Sabah polls confident given that it had more than 622,637 members in the state, but ended up securing only 144,584 votes from them.
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That comes up to just over 23%.
“We often celebrate the increase in party membership as a sign of strength. But the reality we must accept is that membership figures do not necessarily translate into electoral victory.
“The lesson is clear: our members are not necessarily our voters,” he told delegates at the Umno general assembly today.
Umno was dealt with major losses in the 17th Sabah state election as it won just four seats, while its Barisan Nasional ally, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah, snagged one.
It lost several long-held seats, with heavyweights like former chief minister Salleh Said Keruak, deputy foreign minister Mohamad Alamin and Sabah Umno information chief Suhaimi Nasir being defeated.
Asyraf said Sabah Umno had been dealt with three major waves of defections that consistently weakened the party, starting with the formation of Warisan by former Umno vice-president Shafie Apdal in 2016.
That was followed by the defection of leaders to Bersatu in 2018, and then again in 2023 when several migrated to ruling coalition Gabungan Rakyat Sabah.
“Each wave eroded Umno’s strength, severing the lifelines of Sabah Umno’s struggle one by one,” he said.
Asyraf said this declining trend was not confined to Sabah, adding that similar patterns had repeated themselves in the last three general elections.
Looking ahead to upcoming state elections and the next general election, he said the party must confront some hard questions.
“As we approach the Melaka and Johor state elections and subsequently GE16, we must honestly ask: is the addition of 46,655 members this year, bringing the total to 3.525 million Umno members, enough to guarantee victory?”
