Khairy Jamaluddin pointed out that Pakatan Harapan emptied its entire arsenal with regard to the Rantau by-election but failed to win the state seat.

Acknowledging that the BN candidate Mohamad Hasan was a huge factor, he also noted how PKR president Anwar Ibrahim campaigned relentlessly for the Harapan candidate, Dr S Streram.

“We must make sense of the results... This week, Harapan threw everything at us.

“Felda, Tabung Haji, pink diamond, ECRL, personal attacks on Tok Mat (Mohamad). Anwar practically lived in Rantau for the by-election,” he tweeted this evening.

The former minister also commented on another Twitter user's posting that the Rantau polls witnessed a Malay tsunami.

Disagreeing with this, Khairy said: “Based on stream results, it is not just Malay. Rantau results have shown decent cross-ethnic support for Mohamad.”

“This is possibly more significant than the Cameron Highlands and Semenyih (by-elections). Of course, there is only one Tok Mat, but it means BN can recover in mixed constituencies,” he added.

Rantau is one of two state seats under the Rembau parliamentary constituency, of which Khairy is the MP.

Earlier, Malaysiakini called the Rantau by-election in Mohamad's favour after the votes he garnered surpassed the minimum threshold to score a win.

The Umno leader faced three contestants, PKR's Dr S Streram and two independents.

In the last general election, the former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar won the seat uncontested after Streram was barred from filing his nomination papers.

Streram filed an election petition and the courts ordered that a by-election be held.

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