The Malaysian Insight

BARISAN Nasional has retained the Cameron Highlands seat with its direct candidate, Ramli Mohd Nor.

With more than half of the 89 streams counted, Ramli took an unassailable lead over Pakatan Harapan’s M. Manogaran, who is contesting here for the third time.

As at 6.56pm, the Election Commission’s unofficial results at the Tanah Rata tallying centre has Ramli winning 11,381 votes compared with Manogaran’s 7,182, giving the retired policeman a 4,199-vote majority. Independent candidates Sallehuddin has 295 votes while Wong has 226 votes.

The estimated turnout for the by-election is about 68% of the 32,008 voters, making the midway point at around 11,000 votes.

PH had been hoping to wrest the Orang Asli vote after the seat’s results in the 14th general election were nullified by the court over bribery by the previous MP, C. Sivarraajh, leading to this by-election.

Sivarraajh of MIC celebrated BN’s win in the by-election, saying it was “proof that there was no element of bribery as stated by the (election) court. 

“(The Orang Asli) are staunch BN supporters. All the witnesses brought by (PH candidate) Mano(garan) are PH supporters. God is great even though I have been persecuted,” he tweeted.

Umno’s Khairy Jamaluddin tweeted his thanks to Cameron Highlands voters, saying “this is the first step of a journey of a million steps to regain the people’s trust”. – January 26, 2019.

Terima kasih kepada pengundi Cameron Highlands. Ini hanya langkah pertama dalam perjalanan berjuta langkah untuk kembali menerima kepercayaan rakyat. Sentiasa tawaduk dalam kemenangan.

— Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) January 26, 2019