Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad reminded Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak not to gloat following BN wins in the recent Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections, as they involved dishing out goods and money, and improving infrastructure to win votes.

In his second blog posting today, Mahathir said despite losing, newly formed Parti Amanah Negara's achievements should be praised.

“Amanah is a new poverty-stricken party with hardly any election machinery, its performance should be lauded,” he said.

“The tactics used by BN to win is really not something to crow about either, considering that BN distributed rice and electrical goods, as well as money, tarring roads and promising to build a multi-million ringgit bridge,” he added.

He also noted that press reports said BN won by a 6,969 majority in Kuala Kangsar, while it was 9,191 in Sungai Besar.

(Editor's note: The reports in the media follow First Past The Post convention, where the majority is the difference in votes between the winning candidate, and his or her nearest rival.)

However, Mahathir said the actual majority was much smaller, as 10,621 votes went to PAS and Amanah in Kuala Kangsar, hence the majority was only 2,032. Similarly in Sungai Besar, the margin was only 2,289 and not 9,191.

The former premier also commented that the Chinese voters did not return to BN.

“Their turnout was far below average in both constituencies, indicating their belief, as promoted by MCA, that this was a Malay quarrel and they should not take part in it.

“This failure to vote is despite the goodies distributed to them by BN, and the threats regarding foreign workers,” he said in the blog post.

In the run-up to Sungai Besar by-election, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had said fishermen who owned Zone B licences, could now apply to hire foreign workers as crew members on their vessels.