TANJUNG MALIM, August 29 — Barisan Nasional (BN) retained the Slim state seat with a landslide victory in the by-election today with a 10,945-vote majority.

BN’s Mohd Zaidi Aziz, 43, garnered 13,060 votes to defeat newly-formed Parti Pejuang Tanah Air’s (Pejuang) Amir Khusyairi Mohamad Tanusi, 38, who contested with an independent ticket, and independent candidate Santharasekaran Subramaniam, 44.

Santharasekaran lost his deposit after only managing to secure 276 votes.

The result of the by-election was announced by Returning Officer Shamsul Ridzuan at the vote-tallying centre at the Dewan Sri Tanjung here at 9pm.

A total of 22,749 people is eligible to vote at the 12 polling stations which started at 8am and closed at 5.30pm.

The voter turnout for today’s by-election was 68.4 per cent when polling closed at 5.30pm with a total of 327 rejected votes.

Election Commission (EC) officers bring Slim by-election ballot boxes to the vote-tallying centre at the Dewan Sri Tanjung in Tanjung Malim August 29, 2020. — Picture by Farhan Najib

The polling process required voters to observe prescribed standard operating procedures (SOP), such as physical distancing, wearing face mask, using of hand sanitisers and scanning their body temperature in all 12 polling stations.

This was the seventh victory for BN out of the 12 by-elections held after the GE14 on May 9, 2018.

BN had previously won by-elections in Cameron Highlands, Semenyih, Rantau, Tanjung Piai, Kimanis and Chini.

The Slim by-election was held following the death of its four-term assemblyman Datuk Mohd Khusairi Abdul Talib on July 15.

In the 14th general election, Mohd Khusairi defended the state seat with a majority of 2,183 votes by defeating Mohd Amran Ibrahim from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, who contested under the PKR ticket, and Muhammad Zulfadli Zainal of PAS.

The result of the by-election will not affect the political scene in the state.

This is because the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition has 33 seats out of 59 state seats, comprising 25 held by Umno (BN), five by Bersatu and three by PAS, compared to the 24 seats held by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, composed of DAP (16), Amanah (5) and PKR (3).

The PN coalition is further strengthened by two assemblymen, one Independent and one from Gerakan, who have pledged their support to the Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu.