BN retains Slim with landslide win

Barisan Nasional (BN) retained the Slim state seat with an enhanced majority of 10,945 votes in a by-election today.

BN's Mohd Zaidi Aziz, 43, the Tanjung Malim UMNO division deputy chief, polled 13,060 votes to beat two independent candidates, lawyer Amir Khusyairi Mohamad Tanusi, 38, who got 2,115 votes, and former teacher S. Santharasekaran, 44, who obtained only 276 votes.

The result was announced by returning officer Shamsul Ridzuan Idris at the vote-tallying centre at the Dewan Sri Tanjung of Tanjung Malim District Council here.

Shamsul Ridzuan said the voter turnout was 68.40 per cent and there were 327 spoilt votes.

Santharasekaran lost his deposit for failing to secure at least one-eighth of the total votes received by the candidates.

A total of 22,749 regular voters were eligible to vote in the by-election. The electoral roll also had 267 early voters and 78 postal voters.

Throughout the polling process from 8 am to 5.30 pm today, the standard operating procedure (SOP) to curb the spread of COVID-19 was implemented, including physical distancing, wearing of face masks, use of hand sanitisers and taking of body temperature.

The Slim seat fell vacant after the death of its four-term assemblyman, Datuk Mohd Khusairi Abdul Talib of BN, from a heart attack on July 15.

In the 14th general election (GE14), Mohd Khusairi won the seat with a 2,183-vote majority, defeating Bersatu's Mohd Amran Ibrahim, who was contesting on a PKR ticket, and PAS' Muhammad Zulfadli Zainal.

Today's poll was the 12th by-election held after GE14 and the second conducted under the COVID-19 SOP, after the Chini state by-election on July 4.

-- BERNAMA