PETALING JAYA, Sept 8 — Pakatan Harapan has won the Seri Setia by-election with 3,800-vote majority over PAS, unofficial results have shown.

According to Institut Darul Ehsan, PKR’s Halimey Abu Bakar has scored 58.8 per cent with 12,690 votes, leaving his contender from the Islamist party Dr Halimah Ali with only 8,890 votes.

Barisan Nasional sat out this by-election to pave way for its "new ally” PAS to return the latter’s favour in the Sungai Kandis by-election on August 8.

The think tank updates its results on the official website after getting live reports from counting agents on the ground. The total votes counted as of 7.30pm is 21,589.

The Election Commission (EC) had earlier announced that the turnouts in both Balakong and Seri Setia by-elections are the lowest in history with only 43 per cent and 44 per cent respectively.

Previously, the 2009 Penanti by-election and Sungai Kandis by-election had the lowest turnouts with 46.15 per cent and 49.4 per cent respectively.

The poor turnouts had spurred the EC to encourage voters to come out on today’s twin by-elections to exercise their rights.

Today’s turnouts fall far behind from EC’s expectation of 70 per cent.

The state seat fell vacant after the death of Shaharuddin Badaruddin on August 2 due to colon cancer.

During the 14th General Election, Pakatan’s incumbent won a 19,372-vote majority, leaving the runner-ups far behind.

BN’s Datuk Yusoff HM Haniff received 9,878 votes, PAS’ Mohd Ghazali Daud received 4,563 votes while independent candidate Dr S. Vignes received 217 votes.