Tengku Zafrul’s Kuala Selangor defeat a big surprise
KUALA SELANGOR: It came as a big surprise when Barisan Nasional’s high-profile candidate Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz lost the battle for the Kuala Selangor parliamentary seat.
Incumbent Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad emerged as the winner with 31,033 votes and a slim majority of 1,002 votes.
Tengku Zafrul put up a good fight and managed to garner 30,031 votes.
From the very beginning, there was confusion as to who would emerge victorious in the fight.
In one corner, Barisan offered Tengku Zafrul, a blue-blooded technocrat said to be a financial whiz, whilst Pakatan offered Dr Dzulkefly, an experienced incumbent who had served the constituents for two terms.
Both had served in the Cabinet, with Dr Dzulkefly being the health minister during Pakatan’s tenure as Federal Government and Tengku Zafrul as incumbent finance minister in the caretaker government.
Political analyst Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said both men were heavyweight candidates in their own right.
“It’s a pity that Tengku Zafrul lost, but he fought a good fight and lost to a strong candidate,” he said.
Dr Dzulkefly’s successful defence of his seat was an indication that the people of Kuala Selangor were still behind Pakatan.
Perikatan Nasional’s Ustaz Mohd Noor Shahar from PAS did not do badly either with a total of 23,639 votes.
However, Gerakan Tanah Air’s Pejuang candidate Mohd Shahid Rosli, who is also Jeram assemblyman, only managed to secure 1,778 votes.
Only Dr Dzulkefly was present when the returning officer, Rahilah Rahmat, announced the results.
A big crowd had already assembled outside and were chanting “Reformasi”.
A total of 84,294 voters making up 82.20% of the district’s registered voters had come out to vote.
There were also 303 of the constituency’s registered voters who were infected with Covid-19, and it is not known how many of them had come out to vote.