PONTIAN: Barisan Nasional (BN) has reclaimed the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat from the ruling alliance Pakatan Harapan (PH) after its candidate Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng won the six-cornered by-election yesterday with 15,086-vote majority.
The official results were announced by Tanjung Piai by-election returning officer Zulkifly Mohd Tahir at 9.16pm at Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim here.
The former two-term Tanjung Piai MP polled 25,466 votes against the 10,380 garnered by his closest contender Karmaine Sardini of PH.
Four other candidates lost their deposits for securing less than one-eighth or 12.5 per cent of the total votes.
Gerakan’s Wendy Subramaniam managed to get only 1,707 votes, followed by Datuk Dr Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz of Berjasa (850), and two independents, Dr Ang Chuan Lock (380) and Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar (32).
Of the 38,815 ballots received, 595 were rejected. Thirty ballots were not returned.
Wee, 55, a former Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, was the MP for Tanjung Piai from 2008 before losing to the late Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik (PH) who contested on a PKR ticket in the 14th general election (GE14), by 524 votes.
In the GE14 held in May last year, Dr Md Farid, an anaesthesiologist, obtained 21,255 votes in a three-cornered fight. Wee secured 20,731 votes, while Nordin Othman (PAS-Berjasa) garnered 2,962 votes.
Dr Md Farid, 42, died on Sept 21 at the Pontian Hospital due to heart complications, thus necessitating the by-election.
The Tanjung Piai by-election is the ninth by-election held after the PH won GE14.
Voter turnout was 74.5 per cent, the second highest among the nine after the Rantau by-election (79 per cent).
The Tanjung Piai constituency has 52,471 registered voters. – Bernama
