BARISAN Nasional (BN) has managed to retain the Pelangai legislative assembly seat with better results, with its candidate Datuk Amizar Amizar Abu Adam defeating Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Kasim Samat and independent candidate Haslihelmy DM Zulhasli.
BN has retained the Pelangai constituency with a 62% vote share, based on the unofficial count. This is an improvement on the 57.7% achieved by its incumbent in 2022.
Amizar, a Bentong UMNO committee member, is believed to have secured almost 1,900 votes, far ahead of his rivals Kasim and Haslihelmy.
Some sources say the BN man has a 3000 vote majority.
Counting of votes began soon after the six polling centres closed at 6pm, with ballot boxes from 30 streams taken to the vote-tallying centre at Dewan Orang Ramai Felda Kemasul near Bentong.Moreover, PN has managed to win in the Felda Kemasul and Felda Kemahal voting districts and has more than doubled its Malay support in the area.During the 15th General Election last November, Bentong UMNO Youth chief the late Datuk Seri Johari Harun won the seat defeating three rivals with a 4,048-vote majority.There are a total of 16,456 eligible voters in the state seat by-election, including 73 postal ballots. The Election Commission said the turnout was expected to exceed 70%. – Oct 7, 2023
Main photo credit: Utusan
