Politik Pilihan Raya: Dinamika UMNO Kelantan 1974 -2013

PAS and UMNO are the two political parties that dominate the Kelantan society. The 1959 election, the country’s first election after independence, opened up opportunities for PAS in Kelantan when it successfully formed the state government by winning 28 state seats out of the 30 seats contested. Starting from the election, PAS ruled Kelantan for 19 years until 1978 and after that UMNO succeeded in taking over the power to govern the Kelantan state government when there was a crisis of confidence in the Menteri Besar and also PAS ‘ internal problems. The crisis of UMNO internal divisions began to occur and became increasingly bitter when Tengku Razaleigh acted to establish a new party, namely parti Semangat 46 (S46) after the ban of UMNO on February 4, 1988. The impact of the split of UMNO leaders caused UMNO to fail to continue the power to administer the Kelantan state government when it lost the 1990 general election. UMNO’s defeat in Kelantan continued until the 2013 general election. For 23 years Kelantan has been under the PAS administration and various efforts have been made to restore the people’s confidence in UMNO in Kelantan but all failed. This study will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of UMNO from 1974 to 2013 because during this period UMNO had won and lost in Kelantan. The purpose of this study is to identify the push and pull factors of UMNO’s failure in taking over the state of Kelantan from the PAS administration. The state of Kelantan has been in two different governments and of course every change that occurs is driven by a major factor, namely the leadership that is not legitimized (legitimacy) by the people of Kelantan. This study uses a qualitative research methodology by obtaining library sources and interviewing several important figures in Kelantan UMNO. The findings of this study have highlighted that leadership factors play an important role in determining leadership in the formation of the state government in Kelantan.