KULIM: Malaysia's Perikatan Nasional PN won the parliamentary seat of Padang Serai on Wednesday, defeating Pakatan Harapan PH who previously held the seat.
PN's Azman Nasrudin won 51,637 votes, beating five other candidates. He won with a margin of 16,260 over PH's Dr Mohamad Sofee, who had 35,377 votes.
The other candidates were Barisan Nasional's BN C Sivaraj with 2,983 votes, independent candidate Sreanandha Rao with 846 votes, Pejuang's Hamzah Abd Rahman with 424 votes and Warisan candidate Mohd Bakhri Hashim with 149 votes.
Sivaraj and Mohd Bakhri had withdrawn from the contest to give way to Mohamad Sofee. Their names remained on the ballot papers because of election regulations that said the status of candidates could not be changed after their nominations were accepted.
PN's latest win in Kedah means it now has a total of 74 seats in the parliament, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Harapan holding 81.
A majority of the seats of the PN coalition were won by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia PAS in the states of Terengganu, Kedah, Kelantan and Perlis.
In a separate vote held on Wednesday, Barisan Nasional retained the Tioman state seat, defeating rival PN by a narrow margin of 573 votes.
Mohd Johari Hussain, the incumbent candidate, won a total of 8,080 votes, defeating Nor Idayu Hashim, who garnered 7,507.
The three other candidates were PH's Mohd Fadzli Mohd Ramly, Pejuang's Osman A Bakar and independent candidate Sulaiman Bakar, who received 784, 79 and 58 votes respectively.
The coalition's victory in the Tioman state seat shows that the people accept the BN-PH coalition government in Pahang, according to Pahang BN chairman Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail.
BN is part of the unity government led by Pakatan Harapan leader and Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Malaysia went to the polls on November 19. The vote for Padang Serai parliamentary seat was postponed on November 16 after PH candidate M Karupaiya died on November 16 after he collapsed during campaigning.
The election for the Tioman state seat was postponed when PN candidate Md Yunus Ramli died of heart complications in the run-up to the polls.