Barisan Nasional retakes Semenyih by a 1,914-vote majority
Coalition wrests back Semenyih state seat 9 months after PH won it in GE14
BARISAN Nasional wrested back the Semenyih state seat nine months after Pakatan Harapan won it in the 14th General Election (GE14).
BN won by a comfortable 1,914vote majority.
BN’s win was due to a huge 10,878 vote swing from PH.
In GE14, PH won the seat with a majority of 8,964 votes.
This was the second victory for BN recently after retaining the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat on Jan 26 by a 3,238vote majority.
Semenyih is the first seat, whether state or parliamentary to change hands since GE14.
BN’s Zakaria Hanafi garnered 19,780 votes, while PH’s Muhammad Aiman Zainali received 17,866 votes.
Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s (PSM) Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul was in third place, with 847 votes, and independent Kuan Chee Heng was in fourth place, with 725 votes.
PH’s loss leaves it with 49 seats in the Selangor State Assembly, while BN has six and Pas has one.
PSM and the independent candidate lost their deposits.
Election candidates who do not secure at least one-eighth of the votes will have their RM5,000 deposit for a state seat forfeited.
The Semenyih by-election saw the best turnout since GE14, at 73.3 per cent.
Early voting on Feb 26 saw a 78 per cent voter turnout, or 676 of 858 registered early voters.
The Election Commission had hoped that the voter turnout would reach 70 per cent.
In GE14, the voter turnout for the Semenyih state seat was 88 per cent of 46,839 voters.
The Semenyih by-election’s voter turnout was also the highest among all the by-elections in recent months, such as in Sungai Kandis (49.8 per cent), Seri Setia (44 per cent) and Balakong (43 per cent) in Selangor.
Semenyih’s voter turnout was better than the Port Dickson parliamentary seat by-election (58.3 per cent) and the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat by-election (68.79 per cent).
Returning officer Datuk Mohd Sayuthi Bakar announced the results at the vote tallying centre at the Seri Cempaka Hall in Kajang.
The centre was a hive of activity as ballot boxes began arriving after polls closed at 5.30pm and the vote tallying process began.
The Semenyih by-election was called following the death of PH assemblyman Bakhtiar Mohd Nor from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia on Jan 11.
A total of 53,411 people were eligible to vote in the by-election.
The Semenyih constituency has 53,520 ordinary voters, with 10 voting through post. Early voting was held last Tuesday.