Barisan Nasional's Wee Jeck Seng clinches landslide victory in Tanjung Piai by-election
17 November, 2019
Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Dr Wee Jeck Seng has clinched a landslide victory over his rivals in the Tanjung Piai by-election.
According to official results announced by the Election Commission (EC) at 9.20pm on Saturday (Nov 16) evening, Dr Wee clinched a simple majority of 25,466 votes.
His closest rival, Pakatan Harapan's Karmaine Sardini, garnered 10,380 votes, giving Dr Wee a whopping 15,086-vote majority over Mr Karmaine. ???????
Other candidates in the six-cornered fight Ms Wendy Subramaniam from Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia had 1,707 votes while Dr Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz of Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia garnered 850 votes.
Independent candidates Dr Ang Chuan Lock and Ms Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar received 380 and 32 votes respectively.
The Tanjung Piai by-election is the ninth since last May’s general election.
By-elections have been held for the Sungai Kandis state seat; Balakong and Seri Setia state seats; Port Dickson parliamentary seat; Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat, Semenyih and Rantau state seats as well as the Sandakan parliamentary seat.
Dr Wee's victory means that BN has won four of the nine contests.
In a press conference following his victory, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi thanked supporters and Barisan Nasional officials for their help in his campaign.
"This victory is a win for us all. I would like to thank all Malaysians for their support and relentless prayers for BN's victory," he said.
Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq, who campaigned with Mr Karmaine in Tanjung Piai, said in a statement to journalists that the defeat was a bitter pill to swallow and apologised to the youths in Malaysia for his "shortcomings".
"This disappointment has to be followed by action," he wrote.
The Election Commission announced that the voter turnout for the Tanjung Piaiby-election on Saturday was around 74.4 per cent, less than the 85.7 per cent total during last year's polls.
The Tanjung Piai by-election was called after PH MP Farid Rafik died suddenly from a heart attack in September.
Dr Farid had won the seat by a slim 524-vote majority during the general election in May 2018 against Dr Wee.
Dr Wee previously held the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat from 2008 to 2018.
More than 55 per cent of the electorate in Tanjung Piai are Malay, 41 per cent of the voters are Chinese and around 1 per cent are Indian.
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