According to the unofficial Election Commission (EC) count, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Mohamad Alamin has won the Kimanis by-election after securing 12,706 votes, with a 2,029 majority.
Mohamad secured more than half of ballots cast by 23,150 constituents who voted today.
The Election Commission’s unofficial results also indicate that Parti Warisan Sabah’s candidate, Datuk Karim Bujang, garnered only 10,677 votes.
Returning officer Jupari @Jupry Etok is due to announce the winner when full official results are out.
BN has before this won four out of the nine by-elections held in the country so far – Semenyih, Rantau, Cameron Highlands and Tanjung Piai.
Last night, an MCA-linked research group said the Kimanis by-election was a close race but predicted a win for Mohamad against Karim.
Strategic Analysis and Policy Research Institute (Insap) deputy chairman Pamela Yong said their survey indicated Mohamad had the bigger support from the Muslim and non-Muslim Bumiputeras.
The Kimanis seat was declared vacant after the Federal Court on December 2 upheld the Election Court’s ruling, nullifying former Umno foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman’s victory in the 14th General Election (GE14) in May 2018.
In GE14, Anifah won the seat on an Umno ticket with a 156-vote majority, securing 11,942 votes against Karim’s 11,786 votes while another candidate, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, obtained 1,300 votes.
Anifah later quit Umno in September 2018 but continued to back the party in this by-election.