BN Tanjung Kapor candidate’s votes mistakenly announced

KUDAT: Barisan Nasional ( BN) supporters at the vote counting centre here were stunned in disbelief when the returning officer ( RO) mistakenly announced their candidate for Tanjung Kapor had received only 800 votes late on Sunday night.

The RO, realising he misread the figure on the official election result sheet, immediately made the correction and announced the correct figure.

The audience, probably still dumbstruck with the initial figure announced, took a couple of seconds to realise what had just happened but the slightly delayed response came nevertheless in the form of a thunderous celebration.

“Tsen Heng Chong @ Peter Tsen of SAPP received 500. Teo Chee Kang from BN received 800...”, said the RO as he paused to look back at the figure and then said “8,809 votes”.

Teo, who in the last general election won Tanjung Kapor by securing almost half of the total votes, had to be contented with a slimmer majority of 1,985.

This was mainly due to a surprise strong showing by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate Chin Chung Kui @ William Chin, who polled 6,906 in the BN traditional stronghold.

Chin’s performance was comparatively better than Teo’s in 2008, where BN polled 6,629 in a smaller turn-out that year.

But this did not stop the BN supporters from rejoicing the victory of their candidate.

“Tatap BN!” shouted someone from the back of the crowd, followed by thunderous claps and more “Tatap BN” from the rest, which forced the RO to pause and let the noise subside before continuing with the rest of his announcement.

According to the figure released by the Election Commission (EC), over 17,000 or about 77.4 per cent from 22,476 registered voters in Tanjung Kapor took part in the May 5 balloting, as compared to only 12,590 in 2008.

This represents an increase of roughly 35 per cent in total votes count, as compared to the last election. The other two state constituencies, Banggi and Pitas, also recorded a much bigger turn- out with 73.6 per cent and 79.5 per cent of the registered voters in the respective areas had cast their vote. A total of 11,758 voters were accounted for in Pitas, while Banggi recorded 7,257, representing an increase of 60 and 49 per cent per cent respectively compared to 2008. As predicted, BN managed to retain all the three state seats as well as the parliamentary seat under the Kudat constituency.

In Banggi, incumbent assemblyman Datuk Abdul Mijul Unaini was re- elected after receiving 4,293 from the total 7,257 votes.

Had he secured 500 more votes, he would have polled more than the total votes registered by all the candidates combined in 2008.

In Pitas, Datuk Bolkiah Ismail was re- elected after polling 6,934, with his closest rival Maklin Bin Masiau from ( STAR) garnering 3,111.

Two-term parliamentarian Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri delivered the Kudat parliamentary seat after registering 21,883 votes.

Like Mijul in Banggi, he also recorded a bigger majority, leaving his closest rival Rahimah Majid from PKR by 12,736 votes.

Bolkiah recorded a 3,823 majority, about the same with his majority in 2008.