The Malaysian Insight

VIVIAN Wong said she owes tonight’s win to her senior party colleagues and her late father, Stephen Wong, who had built a strong foundation for DAP as the Sandakan MP. 

Most of all, however, she is grateful to the Sandakan folk who have given her the opportunity to represent them in parliament. 

“Of course, I am very excited, happy and thankful for the win,” she said, after trouncing PBC and three independent candidates in the Sandakan federal by-election today.

“This is all due to the Sandakan folk who are mostly my father’s voters. They hope that I can do a good job like my father.”

The 30-year-old was DAP’s top pick to take over the Sandakan parliamentary seat from her father, who died on March 28 of cardiac arrest.

Called a greenhorn by critics who had questioned Pakatan Harapan’s choice of candidate for Sandakan, she polled 16,012 votes to her closest rival, PBS’ Linda Tsen’s 4,491 votes.

Former Sabah Amanah chief Hamzah Abdullah received 188 votes, businessman Chia Sew Yung, 178 votes, and former parliamentary office worker Sulaiman Abdul Samat, 126 votes. 

The Election Commission noted there were 234 spoiled votes and the turnout was 54.44% of the 40,133 registered voters in the constituency. 

“I never expected to accumulate such a huge majority. All I can say is just that I tried my best and I was surprised with the results,” she said, flashing a smile that has become familiar to Sandakan folk in recent days. 

Wong joked that it was her youth that had enabled her to endure the two weeks of hard work on the  campaign trail.

“Actually I’m still fine probably I am still young, my seniors actually prepared me for the mental and physical stress of being a YB, such as how to deal with the media, which always makes me nervous. 

“They have helped me pull through,” she said. 

The most challenging work she had to do on the campaign was to walk up and down the apartment buildings to meet with the people, she said, some of whom were not very welcoming. 

“I dont blame them; probably they are not too familiar with me,” she said. 

Wong also made history when she captured Kampung Sim Sim and Pulau Berhala which until tonight have been Barisan Nasional strongholds. – May 11, 2019.