CAMERON HIGHLANDS, Jan 26 — Barisan Nasional (BN) retained its hold on Cameron Highlands today, unbroken ever since the parliamentary seat was created in 2003.

Its political greenhorn candidate Ramli Mohd Nor was declared the winner of the by-election with a 3,238-vote majority over his closest rival from Pakatan Harapan, M. Manogaran.

The 61-year-old Ramli secured 12, 078 votes and is set to become the first Orang Asli MP ever.

Ramli looked triumphant as Returning Officer Datuk Ishak Md Napis declared his victory at SMK Sultan Ahmad Shah here, which was used as the vote-tallying centre earlier.

The former policeman beat three other candidates, lawyer Manogaran from DAP and independent candidates Sallehudin Ab Talib and Wong Seng Yee.

Manogaran received 8,800 votes in total while Sallehudin, a former lecturer drew 314 votes and farmer-activist Wong received 276 votes.

The Pahang parliamentary by-election was called after the Election Court nullified the results of the 14th general election over evidence of vote-buying.

The voter turnout for today’s by-election was 68.79 per cent when polling closed at 5.30pm with a total of 568 rejected votes.

The percentage exceeded the last four by-elections for the state seats of Sungai Kandis (49.8 per cent), Seri Setia (44 per cent), Balakong (43 per cent) in Selangor and also Port Dickson parliamentary seat by-election which was at 58.3 per cent.