The opposition Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition won the constituency of Tanjung Piai, Johor in a landslide result.

In the hotly-contested by-election of Nov. 16, BN's Wee Jeck Seng received 25,466 votes, according to Malaysiakini.

This was more than double the tally of his closest challenger, Pakatan Harapan candidate Karmaine Sardini.

MCA is back

The victory came as encouraging news for BN supporters, particularly those who were questioning the effectiveness of the Malaysian Chinese Association's (MCA) continued alliance with UMNO.

After serving as part of the ruling coalition for decades, the MCA performed disastrously in 2018's general election, which resulted in only one MCA Member of Parliament.

Wee's triumph has regained a seat that he lost in 2018.

Wee is a former two-term Tanjung Piai MP, who served from 2008 to 2018. He lost his seat to PH's Md Farid Md Rafik of Bersatu (a PH component party) by just 524 votes.

However, Md Farid's untimely death due to a heart attack in Sep. 2019 paved the way for Wee to reclaim his seat.

Najib and Mahathir both campaigned

The by-election saw the involvement of political heavyweights, with both Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and former PM Najib Razak campaigning in Tanjung Piai.

Mahathir had criticised the odd sight of MCA cooperating with the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), with UMNO acting as a "broker", to win Tanjung Piai.

He said, according to Malaysiakini:

"Insincere. Hypocritical. In front (of the Malays) they claim to champion the Malays, when they come here (Tanjung Piai), (they support) the non-Malays… they only think of winning the by-election."

Meanwhile, despite being on trial, Najib mingled with voters together with Wee.

PH to regroup

Following the result, PH's Anwar Ibrahim said that the result came as a "shock".

He added, according to the Star:

"The majority obtained by the Opposition is a shock and also a message to the entire Pakatan leadership. We must learn from the by-election results.

We need to work to instil confidence in the people towards Pakatan’s policies by fulfilling our promises."

Top image from BN's Facebook page.