Most Read
Most Commented
Read more like this
story images
story images
story images
story images
mk-logo
News
Official: Harapan retains Balakong with increased vote share
Published:  Sep 8, 2018 6:55 PM
Updated: 5:12 PM

BALAKONG POLLS | Pakatan Harapan's Wong Siew Ki has won the Balakong by-election with a majority of 18,533 votes.

Wong bagged 22,508 votes, while MCA's Tan Chee Teong received 3,975 votes.

While MCA managed to retain its deposit today - unlike on May 9 - its vote percentage did not increase significantly, going up to 15 percent, an increase of 4.1 percent.

This is despite PAS campaigning for MCA in the by-election. PAS had previously bagged 11.6 percent of the votes in Balakong during the 14th general election.

DAP's vote share, meanwhile, increased from 77.5 percent to 85 percent.

The by-election was called following the death of incumbent Eddie Ng in a road accident on July 20.

In the 14th general election, Ng defeated BN candidate Lim Chin Wah and PAS' Mohamad Ibrahim Ghazali by a majority of 35,538 votes.


LIVE Seri Setia, Balakong by-election updates


Bernama reported Election Commission secretary Mohamed Elias Abu Bakar as saying that voter turnout was the lowest in by-election history, with just 43 percent of 62,219 voters casting their ballots.

Elias noted that the lowest voter turnout prior to today was the 46 percent recorded for the Penanti by-election in May 2009.

"This could be because of the mood of the people who may not be so keen to be voting again so soon after the general election.

"We view this (low turnout) very seriously, and we will gather feedback on the factors contributing to it,” he was quoted as saying.

ADS