BARISAN Nasional (BN) scored a 12,650-vote majority win in the Chini by-election today.

BN candidate Mohd Sharim Md Zain, 41, received 13,872 votes to defeat his two independent contenders, Tengku Zainul Hisham Tengku Hussin, 64, who polled 1,222 votes and Mohd Shukri Mohd Ramli, 49, who managed to secure 137 votes.

The result of the by-election was announced by returning officer Zaliza Zulkipli at the vote-tallying centre at the National Youth Skills Institute, Pekan, at 9.04pm.

Zaliza said there were only 239 spoilt votes and 36 unreturned or unaccounted ballot papers for the by-election after all 13 polling centres were closed at 5.30pm with voter turnout recorded at 74% (15,231 voters).

Sharim’s majority surpassed the 4,622-vote majority garnered by his predecessor, the late Abu Bakar Harun (BN) in the 14th general election.

Chini state constituency has 20,990 voters comprising 10,269 men and 10,721 women.

This was the sixth victory for BN out of the 11 by-elections held after GE14 on May 9, 2018.

BN had previously won in by-elections in Cameron Highlands, Semenyih, Rantau, Tanjung Piai and Kimanis.

The result also saw the two independent candidates losing their deposits for securing less than one-eighth of the total votes.

The polling process, which began at 8am, went smoothly without any incident.

The by-election was held following Abu Bakar’s death at Kuala Lumpur Hospital due to a heart attack on May 7.  Abu Bakar was Chini state assemblyman since the 11th general election in 2004.

In GE14, Abu Bakar retained the Chini state seat with a majority of 4,622 votes, after securing 10,027 votes against PAS candidate Mohd Fadhil Noor Abdul Karim, who obtained 5,405 votes, and PKR’s Mohamad Razali Ithnain with 1,065 votes. – Bernama, July 4, 2020.