BN wins landslide victory in Chini

PEKAN: Barisan Nasional (BN) wins a landslide victory in the Chini state by-election yesterday with a 12,650-vote majority.

BN candidate Mohd Sharim Md Zain, 41, garnered 13,872 votes to defeat his two independent contenders, Tengku Datuk Zainul Hisham Tengku Hussin, 64, who polled 1,222 votes and Mohd Shukri Mohd Ramli, 49, who only managed to secure 137 votes.

The result of the by-election was announced by Returning Officer Datuk Zaliza Zulkipli at the vote-tallying centre at the National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) here at 9.04 pm. Zaliza said there were only 239 spoilt votes and 36 unreturned or unaccounted ballot papers for the by-election after all 13 polling centres were closed at 5.30 pm with voter turnout recorded at 74 per cent (15,231 voters).

Mohd Sharim’s winning majority surpassed twofold the majority of 4,622 votes garnered by his predecessor, the late Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Harun (BN) of 4,622 votes at the 14th General Election (GE14) Chini state constituency has 20,990 voters comprising 10,269 men and 10,721 women.

This was the sixth victory for BN out of the 11 by-elections held after the GE14 on May 9, 2018.

BN had previously won in byelections in Cameron Highlands, Semenyih, Rantau, Tanjung Piai and Kimanis. The result also saw the two independent candidates lost their deposits for securing less than one-eighth of the total votes.

The polling process, which began at 8am, went smoothly without any incident.

The by-election was held following Abu Bakar’s death at Kuala Lumpur Hospital due to a heart attack on May 7.

Abu Bakar was Chini state assemblyman since the 11th general election in 2004.

In the GE14, Abu Bakar retained the Chini state seat with a majority of 4,622 votes, after securing 10,027 votes against PAS candidate Mohd Fadhil Noor Abdul Karim, who obtained 5,405 votes and PKR’s Mohamad Razali Ithnain, with 1,065 votes.