The controversial Likas by-election drew to an end today with Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Yong Teck Lee emerging victorious with a majority of more than 7,500 votes.

Yong received 9,758 votes and his 7,541 majority was about 2,500 votes more than what he secured during the 1999 state elections where he garnered 4,962 votes.

Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) candidate Dr Chong Eng Leong received 2,217 votes, Keadilan candidate Christina Liew 1,724 and independent candidate Joshua Kong 50 votes. There were 144 spoilt votes.

The by-election was called after High Court judge Muhammad Kamil Awang on June 8, ruled that the Likas electoral roll was illegal and that he was convinced of the existence of phantom voters in the constituency.

Muhammad also ruled that Yong had committed certain offences under the election legislation and ordered Yong to vacate the seat.

Poor turnout

Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) expressed its disappointment that only 52.95 percent (13,749) of the 26,196 voters in Likas cast their ballots today.

According to national news agency Bernama , commission secretary Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said that a good voter turnout was expected, especially after the EC had taken the effort to delete the names of illegal voters from the Likas electoral roll.

"I do not know the reason... maybe some people got scared when we checked voters' identity cards, maybe some were protesting over the phantom voters issue, maybe some were boycotting, maybe some were instigated by certain quarters," he was quoted as saying.

"So, we are very disappointed because almost 50 percent (of voters) did not fulfil their responsibility," he further said.

Asked if anyone had tried to vote with forged identity cards in the by-election, Wan Ahmad said in the report that no fake ICs were detected.

In an immediate reaction, PBS' Chong told malaysiakini the result is the people's loss and not that of the party or himself, adding that his duty was to generate awareness that non-citizens should not easily obtain citizenship.

He said voter turnout was very low because many felt threatened by certain campaigners.

"It seems that the voters no longer believe in the election system," he said, adding that he was personally threatened by BN campaigners at the entrance of the polling centre this morning.