THE superstitious would say that the darkened skies and torrential downpour in Penang about an hour before the close of polling was an omen of things to come.

Like elsewhere, the poor voter turnout had Barisan Nasional politicians really worried.

At about 7pm, the calls started coming in. It was not good news for Barisan, whose candidates in the Chinese seats were trailing their DAP and PKR opponents in a string of seats. It was the sort of news that induces goose pimples.

As the night progressed, it looked like the opposition wind in Penang had turned into a roaring typhoon.

The three opposition parties - DAP, PKR and PAS - had won a clear majority to form the state government.

Gerakan, MCA and MIC candidates had not made it in any of the parliamentary or state seats they had contested. Gerakan lost all 13 state and four parliamentary seats, MCA lost 10 state and four parliamentary seats and the MIC, two state seats.

PKR had also made inroads into Umno and Gerakan seats, taking four parliamentary and nine state seats.

One Barisan politician described it as 'a political tsunami with few survivors'.

Perhaps the most shocking news was the defeat of outgoing Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon in the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat. Just hours earlier, his operations centre staff had confidently predicted a 7,000-vote majority for him.

In fact, the national Gerakan leadership had been defeated. Apart from acting Gerakan president Dr Koh, the other casualties were vice-president Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan, secretary-general Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye and its top central committee member Datuk Lee Kah Choon.

These were stunning results that no one, not even those in the Opposition, had expected or imagined.

It is possible the DAP, which had made Penang its frontline state, was in as much shock as Barisan about the results.

The Chinese had translated their political disenchantment into votes and Malay votes had swung in a number of parts to PKR.

It was well known that the Chinese were not happy, but the Malay vote swing towards the opposition was not something that Umno leaders had expected.

There had been rumblings on the Malay ground because they are greatly affected by cost-of-living issues but few thought they would cast their votes elsewhere.

Dr Koh, who will probably have to do the bulk of explaining in the aftermath, had admitted a few days ago that Barisan could lose between 10 and 15 seats.

For several days before polling, Gerakan leaders had been talking about the ground being too quiet for comfort. They were disconcerted by the silence and their view was that people had decided whom they were voting for.

Some of them even felt that voters had 'switched off' and were no longer listening because they had made up their minds.

'When we go on the ground, they don't say much. They don't want to listen anymore. I think they are just waiting for the day,' Gerakan's Chia had said a few days before polling.

They did suspect that the silence may not be good for them but, as always, politicians are hopeful about their chances.

There was a sense of denial on the Barisan side about interpreting the silent ground and some politicians did not like it when the media wrote about it.

Reporters on the ground had already sensed that the rumblings about a variety of national and local issues were developing into a wind of sorts.

The last time something like this had happened was in 1969 when the then Alliance state government fell to Gerakan, then an opposition party led by Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu.

There will be a lot of soul-searching ahead for Barisan leaders in the state.

They will have to seriously examine the causes of the Chinese vote swing and the shift of Malay votes. -- The Star/ANN.