BARISAN Nasional has taken back the Kimanis parliamentary seat, according to unofficial results.

With more than half the votes tallied at 7.30pm, BN candidate Mohamad Alamin has 11,992 votes which gives him an unassailable lead over Karim’s 10,200 votes.

The Election Commission pegged voter turnout at slightly more than 80% today.

The Kimanis constituency has 29,664 voters, of which nine were early voters and one was an overseas absentee voter.

The constituency has two state seats, Bongawan and Membakut.

The poll was called after the Election Court’s nullification on August 16, 2019, of former MP Anifah Aman’s win in the 2018 general election, which, including this one, has since seen 10 by-elections.

Karim, the former five-term Bongawan assemblyman, is the Kimanis Warisan chief, while Mohamad is the Kimanis Umno head.

Warisan, which helms the state government in Sabah, is allied with Pakatan Harapan (PH).

Anifah, who won the seat on a BN ticket, quit Umno in September 2018 to go independent. He had held the seat for 20 years after winning it for the first time in 1999.

In the last election, Anifah polled 11,942 votes to win by 156 votes over Karim’s 11,786. The third candidate, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, received 1,300 votes. – January 18, 2020.