KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 — PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali today dismissed suggestions that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government is losing public support after Barisan Nasional’s victory in yesterday’s Kimanis by-election.

Instead, Azmin said the government just needs more time to get better public buy-in for its economic measures to deal with rural poverty.

"As Kimanis is a rural constituency, we need more time to convince voters of our initiatives to bridge the rural-urban gap,” the economic affairs minister was quoted by The Star telling reporters after a market visit in Ampang together with Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin to hand out mandarin oranges for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Azmin was reported to have acknowledged there were issues in Sabah inherited by the past BN state government that needed to be dealt with.

He added that Sabahans need to be convinced that they can look forward to a better future with Warisan in control of the state government.

Mohamad Alamin won the Sabah parliamentary poll yesterday in a straight fight by a 2,029 vote-majority against Parti Warisan Sabah candidate Datuk Karim Bujang, keeping Kimanis for BN by a wider margin.

In comparison, the BN candidate in Election 2018, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman who had held Kimanis since 2004, won by only 156 votes in a three-cornered fight against Karim and a PH candidate Jaafar Ismail.