TUMPAT: Barisan Nasional (BN) retained the Pengkalan Kubor state seat when its candidate Mat Razi Mat Ail was declared winner in the three-cornered fight at the vote tallying centre at SMK Datuk Biji Wangsa here.
Mat Razi Mat Ail, a former district education assistant officer, retained the seat for BN with a vote majority of 2,635, up from the 1,736 votes it won in the general election last year.
Mat Razi, 49, polled 9,961 votes over Pas and independent candidates, Wan Rosdi Wan Ibrahim and Izat Bukhary Izat respectively, who obtained 7,326 and 38 votes. Total of 230 votes rejected.
Izat Bukhary lost his deposit for obtaining lower than the required vote percentage.
He also lost his deposit for polling 65 votes in last year's election.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was present with several BN leaders including BN secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, Kelantan Umno chief Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, Tan Sri Annuar Musa and Datuk Ahmad Maslan.
The victory for Mat Razi had been predicted from the onset of the by-election as Pengkalan Kubor constituency has been under BN since 2004.
The by-election was held following the death of its assemblyman Datuk Noor Zahidi Omar, who had won the seat in three successive elections from 2004.
The result was announced by returning officer Mohd Sobri Ramli at 9pm.
He said 17,674, or 73.52 per cent of the registered voters in the constituency cast their ballots at 11 polling centres.
When the unofficial results trickled in after 5.30pm, it was clear that BN had retained the seat.
By noon, more than half of the total 24,039 registered voters cast their votes to take advantage of the clear weather in their constituency.
During the early voting exercise on Sept 21, 105 of the total 109 policemen cast their votes at the district police station.
The roads near several polling centre came to a standstill in the earlier part of the day as party supporters and other outsiders drove by to observe the voting process.
Earlier in the day, Mat Razi cast his vote at SK Simpangan accompanied by more than 100 party supporters.
Wearing a white robe and skullcap, Mat Razi arrived at the school with his wife Khairos Hussein, 43, at 8.20am before they were joined by BN supporters.
Meanwhile, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusoff said there were 7 police reports lodged by contesting parties over alleged offences during the campaign period from Sept 13 to 24.
Four of them were on putting up of party flags and the rest on campaign posters and ceramah (public talks).
Meanwhile, Royal Malaysian Police media officer for the by-election, ACP Dahlan Mohd Noor said the voting process went on smoothly except for small incidents of commotion due to provocation involving supporters of the contesting parties.
The situation was under control by police while traffic flow rather slow due to party supporters gathered along the road shoulders to appeal for support from the voters.
It was a clear day throughout the voting process at 11 schools up to throughout the day.. -NST
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