TANAH RATA: Barisan Nasional (BN) retained the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat after its candidate Ramli Mohd Nor, 61, won in today’s by-election there.
With his victory, Ramli (pix) also became the first Orang Asli to be elected as a Member of Parliament.
Ramli, a direct candidate of BN (not from any of its component parties), was announced as the winner by the Returning Officer Datuk Ishak Md Napis at 8.35 pm.
The former senior police officer won by a majority of 3,238 votes after securing 12,038 votes.
He defeated three other candidates, namely M.Manogaran of Pakatan Harapan who garnered 8,800 votes, and two independents, former Institut Aminuddin Baki lecturer Sallehudin Ab Talib (314 votes ) and farmer Wong Seng Yee (276 votes).
The Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election was called after the Election Court declared the victory of Datuk C. Sivarraajh from BN in the 14th General Election (GE14), null and void for vote-buying.
The seat has been in BN hands since the 1974 general election.
Voter turnout for the Cameron Highlands by-election is the highest compared with the four previous by-elections. — Bernama
