BN wins Tanjung Piai poll with biggest majority there since 2004

PONTIAN, Nov 16 — Barisan Nasional (BN) has trounced Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the Tanjung Piai by-election today with a whopping majority of 15,086 votes, the Election Commission (EC) announced tonight.

According to returning officer ZUlkifly Mohd Tahir, BN’s candidate Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng from MCA received 25,466 votes over PH’s Karmaine Sardini from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, who received 10,380 votes.

Wee, who had served as Tanjung Piai MP prior to his slim defeat to Bersatu’s late Datuk Dr Farid Md Rafik in the 14th general election, received his biggest majority since he took over from Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting who won with a 23,615-vote majority in 2004.

Wee’s majority in 2008 and 2013 were 12,371 and 5,457 votes, respectively.

In the 14th general election, Farid had won with a slim majority of merely over 524 votes.

Former BN component Gerakan’s Wendy Subramaniam trailed the two main coalitions with 1,707 votes, followed by Islamist party Berjasa’s Datuk Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz with 850 votes.

The two independent candidates Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar received 380 and 32 votes, respectively.

The voter turnout was 74.3 per cent, with 595 spoilt votes, the EC said.

PH and BN had faced a three-cornered fight in 2018 with PAS, which did not contest this by-election and had instead backed BN’s candidate following its Muafakat Nasional cooperation.

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