ANWAR Ibrahim has taken one step closer to realising his dreams of becoming prime minister after winning handsomely the Port Dickson by-election today.

The PKR president-elect bested six other candidates with a whopping majority of 23,560, beating the 17,710 majority won by Danyal Balagopal Abdullah in the 14th general election.

Election Commission (EC) returning officer Khairy Maamor announced that Anwar was the clear cut winner of the polls.

“With this I declare that Anwar from Pakatan Harapan is the winner of the Port Dickson by-election,” he said in the announcement which was greeted with cheers from the crowd within the tallying centre and outside it.

The total votes that Anwar received was 31,016 while his closest rival,  PAS’ Mohd Nazari Mokhtar came in second with 7,456 votes.

Former Negri Sembilan menteri besar Isa Samad, who contested as an independent, was placed third with 4,203, losing his deposit.

As for the four other independents, which included Anwar’s former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Stevie Chan, Lau Seck Yan and Kan Chee Yuen, they all lost their deposits.

EC pegged voter turnout at 58.2%, or 44,172 out of 75,770 voters on the rolls.

In GE14, the PKR’s Danyal Balagopal Abdullah won 36,225 votes, defeating the BN and PAS candidates who received 18,515 and 6,594 votes, respectively.

The election was called when Danyal resigned to allow Anwar to return to Parliament, where he plans to reform the institution.

Anwar will be sworn in on Monday when the Dewan Rakyat convenes. – October 13, 2018.