BN wins big in Batu Sapi, regains Galas

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Nov 4, 2010

(FMT) KUALA LUMPUR: Barisan Nasional has retained the Batu Sapi parliamentary seat by a massive majority and is all set to regain the Galas state seat in Kelantan from PAS, giving Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s administration a boost and sending the Anwar Ibrahim-led opposition back to the drawing board.

Linda Tsen, the BN candidate for the Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election, secured a commandable lead of nearly 6,000 votes over SAPP president Dr Yong Teck Lee and PKR’s Ansari Abdullah.

She obtained 9,773 votes to gain a whopping victory over her rivals with a 6,359-vote majority, even bettering the 3,708-majority gained by her late husband in 2008.

Trailing behind her was Ansari who garnered 3,414 votes and coming last was Yong who received 2,031 votes.

Tsen is the widow of the former incumbent Edmund Chong, who died in a traffic accident on Oct 9, paving the way for this by-election.

It also appears that SAPP’s Yong has failed to capture on his popularity among the Batu Sapi voters. The unofficial numbers show him falling behind PKR’s Ansari who was widely predicted to be the whipping boy.

Observers note that while Tsen had managed to solicit support from both the Malay/Bumiputera and Chinese voters, former chief minister Yong however had lost out to Ansari on the Malay/Bumiputera votes.

PKR meanwhile will look at the results as work-in-progress as the party has high hopes of making inroads in both Sabah and Sarawak for the next general election.

Chinese back to support BN

In the peninsula, BN candidate Abdul Aziz Yusoff is also ahead of his PAS rival Dr Zulkefli Mohamad in the Galas state by-election in Kelantan, with pundits predicting a victory in the region of 1,000 votes.

According to votes tallied from polling streams, Umno’s Abdul Aziz managed to pip Zulkefli by 1,190 votes, reversing the 646 majority gained by PAS in 2008.

Abdul Aziz garnered 5,324 votes as opposed to Zulkefli’s 4,134.

The results from the various streams also indicate that the Chinese voters have backed BN after ditching the national coalition in 2008.