Abd Aziz Kaprawi, the deputy minister of transport, who lost his Sri Gading parliamentary seat in the May 9 election, said the PH chairman succeeded in convincing Umno leaders to switch support to PH.

“Besides the two factors, there were also lies and false accusations created against 1MDB to give the government a bad image.

“Then, the opposition made sky-high promises, including abolishing the GST (goods and services tax),” he told FMT.

He was defeated in a three-cornered contest for Sri Gading by 3,288 votes against eventual winner Dr Shaharuddin Md Salleh of PKR and Lt Kol (Rtd) M Ash’ari of PAS.

Aziz also said the Chinese tsunami that hit BN in this election was worse than the one experienced in 2013.

“Chinese voters no longer wanted BN and, this time around, it was more shocking,” he added.

Meanwhile, Johor Umno information chief Samsol Bari Jamali described the party’s defeat as a lesson that it must not take governance lightly.

He acknowledged national issues were a factor that influenced voters to reject the party in Johor.

“Even though we have governed Johor for 60 years, we have to admit there are weaknesses which remain unresolved.

“It is not an easy task but we must learn from this defeat. PH’s victory will also be a challenge to them to provide better services to the people of Johor,” he said.

He said Umno itself needed to work hard to rebuild in order to win back the people’s support.