PONTIAN: Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng (pix) can march back into the Parliament in style after emerging as the undisputed winner in today’s Tanjung Piai parliamentary by-election, with a thumping 15,086-vote majority.
Wee polled 25,466 votes, followed by Pakatan Harapan’s Karmaine Sardini who received 10,380 votes, Gerakan’s Wendy Subramaniam (1,707 votes), Berjasa’s Dr Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz (850 votes).
The other two independent candidates — Dr Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abd Ghaffar — polled 380 and 32 votes respectively.
The Election Commission (EC) announced that a total of 74.5% registered voters performed their electoral duty today.
Wee’s victory meant BN has succeeded in reclaiming one of its former stronghold that fell to Pakatan Harapan’s hand during the last 14th General Election.
From nomination day itself, BN’s Wee was the favourite to score a victory in the by-election,
Taking into account his two-term experience serving the constituency and added with the waning support to the ruling Pakatan Harapan government, especially from the ethnic Chinese.
But while many tipped Wee to make a comeback into the political scene, the nature of the result comes as a surprise, with even political analysts only predicting a slim victory.
Even if votes from the other four candidates were to go to PH, it would still not help the ruling coalition retain the seat.
Today’s poll was triggered following the sudden passing of incumbent Tanjung Piai MP Datuk Dr Mohd Farid Md Rafik due to heart complication on Sept 21.
Mohd Farid won the seat in GE14 with a razor-thin 524 majority, after polling 21,255 votes. He was closely followed by Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng of BN who received 20,731 votes and PAS candidate Nordin Othman (2,962 votes).
