KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 ― The Election Commission (EC) has announced the first official results of the 15th Melaka state election with the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition emerging victorious in three seats.

They are Taboh Naning, Ayer Limau and Tanjung Bidara.

According to the EC, BN’s Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh trumped PN’s Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin with a thin majority of 364 votes in the hot seat of Tanjung Bidara.

Ab Rauf garnered 3,559 votes while Mas Ermieyati obtained 3,195 votes. Pakatan Harapan’s Zainal Hassan only managed a mere 489 votes.

In Taboh Naning, BN’s Zulkiflee Mohd Zin garnered 3,170 votes over his closest rival, Perikatan Nasional’s Abu Hashim Abdul Samad who managed just 1,345 votes in the three-cornered fight.

Zulkiflee won with a majority of 2,146 votes. PH’s Zairi Suboh followed closely at 1,024 votes obtained.

In Ayer Limau, BN’s Datuk Hameed Basheer obtained 3,838 votes over his closest rival from PN’s Dr Nordina Abd Latif who obtained 2,753 votes.

In Lendu, BN’s chief minister candidate Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali also successfully retained the seat with an overwhelming majority of 3,104 votes over his closest competitors.

BN will later go on to win a total of 21 seats out of the 28 it contested, seizing a two-thirds majority in the state assembly to form the next state government following an official announcement by the EC.

MCA won two seats while MIC won one after having been wiped out in GE14.

Runner-up PH only managed to garner five seats — four from DAP and one from Parti Amanah Negara where its chief minister candidate Adly Zahari was defending.

PKR lost in all 11 constituencies that it contested this time around, leaving the party with zero representation in the state assembly.

The state polls were called following the dissolution of the Melaka state legislative assembly on October 4 when four of the assemblymen withdrew their support for the leadership of chief minister Sulaiman.