Amanah to conduct 'post-mortem' over loss of seats

IPOH - Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) will conduct a post-mortem on the performance of the party which failed to defend its seats in the 15th General Election (GE15).

Its secretary-general Datuk Mohd Hatta Md Ramli said it was to identify any weaknesses in the last election so that it could be fixed.

He said the loss of seats in some areas considered the party's strongholds should not be taken lightly, including the Lumut Parliament.

"We will conduct a post-mortem to find the causes or problems faced during the election. It will be held immediately after the formation of the government is completed.

"We must identify the cause of our defeat, if it is the candidates, machinery, strategy or resources. Based on that, we can return to contest especially in several states such as Penang, Selangor and the three Pas states.

"We need to do it immediately because there is a state that that will be dissolved earlier due to the "mood" (election), we need to quickly prepare in that direction," he said when met at a ceremony here on Saturday.

Also present were Sungai Rapat assemblyman Datuk Seri Dr Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, Gopeng MP Tan Kar Hing, Teja assemblyman Sandrea Ng Shy Ching and Simpang Pulai assemblyman Wong Chai Yi.

Mohd Hatta said Amanah fielded candidates to contest in 54 parliamentary seats nationwide, but only eight seats were defended.

"We worked hard because of the focus was on Barisan Nasional (BN) including my area in Lumut but Perikatan Nasional (PN) is more prominent this time.

"That's a little unexpected but as a political lesson, we need to be sensitive and listen to the grassroots to know our strengths and weaknesses," he said.

In GE15, Mohd Hatta, Amanah vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof and Datuk Mahfuz Omar, Amanah’s communications director Khalid Abdul Samad and election director Datuk Asmuni Awi were defeated by the respective candidates in the seats.