Barisan Nasional tonight retained the Gaya parliamentary seat by a wide majority of 11,923 votes, while DAP and Keadilan came trailing in at a distant second and third respectively.

BN's Liew Teck Chan garnered 15,639 votes to defeat DAP's Dr Hiew King Cheu and Keadilan's Christina Liew who secured 3,716 votes and 2,613 votes respectively. There were 132 spoilt votes.

The results were announced at 9.00 pm at the Dewan MKSAK in Kota Kinabalu.

However, voter turnout was a dismal 44.38 percent of the 49,427 registered voters, the lowest ever recorded for a by-election. A total of 22,100 votes were cast.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi arrived early at Dewan MKSAK, and was jubilant over Liew's strong victory. He was accompanied by Liew, Sabah Chief Minister Chong Kah Kiat, Umno secretary general Khalil Yaakob and other state and national BN leaders.

Addressing the gathering at the dewan after the results were announced, Abdullah said he was pleased that the BN won more than 70 percent of total votes cast.

"We are very happy that we won in all the polling stations. We have also scored a much higher overall majority," he said.