JOHOR BARU, March 12 ― Johor Pakatan Harapan (PH) conceded defeat tonight as Barisan Nasional (BN) officially won 37 seats — and unofficially won in three more — allowing the coalition to reclaim the two-thirds majority in the Johor legislative assembly that it lost in the 2018 general election.

PH, meanwhile, won only 12 seats, with its ally Muda unofficially winning one seat at the time of writing.

State PH chief Aminolhuda Hassan — who himself lost in the Parit Yaani seat today — said that the defeat was “unexpected”.

He cited low voter turnout, split votes and the racist playbook allegedly employed by Barisan Nasional (BN) as among the reasons for the Opposition coalition’s poor showing.

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“Of course, PH, which was once the government, is used to the role because the Opposition will not give up.

“We will continue to uphold the spirit of solidarity to get the people’s mandate, and continue our efforts as the voice of the people to defend the people of Johor as well as the whole country.

“We will hold a post-mortem to pinpoint all our weaknesses, shortcomings and mistakes throughout this state election so that we can bounce back,” he said during a press conference at the PH command centre in Senai tonight.

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Also present were state PKR chief Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh and his DAP counterpart Liew Chin Tong.

In 2018, PH, through its alliance with Bersatu at the time, won 36 seats before the Sheraton Move and subsequent party-hopping whittled them down to 26.