Pakatan retains Sg Kandis
Zawawi wins with a much reduced majority of 5,842 votes
Zawawi wins with a much reduced majority.
SHAH ALAM: Pakatan Harapan has retained Sungai Kandis – with a much reduced majority. The voter turnout was also much lower compared to the 14th General Election.
Pakatan’s Zawawi Ahmad Mughni won with 15,427 votes, while Barisan’s Datuk Lokman Noor Adam garnered 9,585 votes and independent candidate K. Murthy received 97 votes. The voter majority was 5,842 and there were 173 spoilt votes.
During the May 8 general election, Pakatan’s Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei won the state seat with 23,998 votes.
He obtained a 12,480-vote majority against Barisan’s Datuk Kamaruzzaman Johari who got 11,518 votes, Mohd Yusof Abdullah of PAS (7,573) and Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s Hanafiah Husin (76).
The voter turnout for the Sungai Kandis polls yesterday was at 49.4%, believed to be due to voters having no mood to vote as they were still reeling from the impact of the recent general election.
The voter turnout for GE14 was much higher.
Election Commission deputy chairman Tan Sri Othman Mahmood said he was personally not satisfied with the voter turnout as the original target was 80%.
“The voting process went well but I am not satisfied as the voter turnout was low,” he said.
He said the lowest recorded voter turnout was during the Penanti by-election in Penang on May 31, 2009, at 46%.
PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali tweeted a congratulatory message to Zawawi, who is from the party.
“May you continue the peduli rakyat (care for the people) tradition and the excellence of the Selangor state government,” he said, expressing his sincere appreciation for the hard work put in by the party’s election machinery.
“Sungai Kandis remains a stronghold for Pakatan,” he wrote.
In a statement, Umno secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa called the results “significant” and a victory for Barisan, hailing the cooperation between the party and PAS.
“The number of votes garnered by Pakatan is almost half of what was obtained in the last general election. The rakyat’s protest could also be seen with around 9,585 votes given to the Opposition.
“This means that there were over 20,000 votes which rejected or protested against PKR,” he said, adding that this was despite many Pakatan leaders, such as Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and the Selangor Mentri Besar having campaigned in Sungai Kandis.