Barisan Nasional's Zakaria Hanafi wins Semenyih state by-election in Malaysia

Barisan Nasional's (BN) Zakaria Hanafi has won the Semenyih state by-election, the Malaysian Election Commission (EC) announced on Saturday (Mar 2).

Zakaria won the four-cornered fight with 19,780 votes and a 1,914-vote majority.

Pakatan Harapan's (PH) Aiman Zanali obtained 17,866 votes, Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s (PSM) Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul had 847 votes and independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng won 725 votes. 

The official voter turnout was 73 per cent, according to the EC. Polls closed at 5.30pm and votes were tallied at the Kajang Municipal Council.

The by-election for Semenyih, a town in the Selangor state, is the sixth after the 14th general election (GE14) in May last year, the others being the Sungai Kandis state by-election on Aug 4, Balakong and Seri Setia state by-elections on Sep 8; Port Dickson parliamentary by-election on Oct 13 and the Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election on Jan 26 this year. 

The Semenyih seat fell vacant on Jan 11 following the death of PH assemblyman Bakhtiar Mohd Nor after a heart attack.

In GE14, Bakhtiar polled 23,428 votes to beat three other candidates – BN's Johan Abd Aziz, Malaysian Islamic Party's Mad Shahmidur Mat Kosim and PSM's S Arutchelvan – to win with a majority of 8,964 votes.

The Semenyih constituency has 54,503 registered voters, comprising 53,520 ordinary voters, 951 early voters and 32 absentee voters.