PAS’ Wahid wins Kuala Terengganu Seat

KUALA TERENGGANU: PAS wrested the Kuala Terengganu Parliamentary seat from Barisan Nasional with a majority of 2,631.

PAS candidate Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut garnered a total 32,883 votes compared to Barisan Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, who got 30,252 votes.

There were 665 spoilt votes.

With this victory the Opposition now has 82 seats in Parliament. Barisan now has 137 and the remaining three seats are held by Independents.

Abdul Wahid attributed his victory to the fact that he knew many of the voters as he was a five-term Wakaf Mempelam assemblyman.

He said he intended to bring up many issues when Parliament resumes its seating.

Meanwhile, Wan Farid was calm in defeat saying “I accept it.”

The first ballot box was brought into the tallying centre at 6.30pm and the first result was announced 30 minutes later.

The results were announced stream by stream and initially Wan Farid was in the lead until at 8.20pm when the result of the 81st ballot boxes was announced and Abdul Wahid started pulling ahead by 168 votes.

The final result was announced by returning officer Wan Mustafa Wan Hassan at 9.30pm.

The situation around Stadium Negeri where tallying was carried out was quite calm although shouts of Allahuakbar could be heard from thousands of PAS supporters who had gathered beyond the 50-meter radius from the centre every time a result favouring their candidate was announced.

A total of 77.76 per cent or 63,993 of 80,229 voters cast their votes. The constituency has 1,302 postal voters.

Election Commission had set up 143 voting streams at 36 polling centres in the by-election held from 8am until 5pm.

Wan Farid and Abdul Wahid were among those who turned up early to cast their votes.

Wan Farid cast his vote at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Pusat Bukit Besar polling centre at 8.02am while Mohd Abdul Wahid voted at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Pusat Chabang Tiga at 8.07am.

Independent candidate Azharudin Mamat did not vote as he is a registered voter in the Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary constituency.

The by-election, which saw a three-way fight between Wan Farid, Abdul Wahid and Azharudin, was held following the death of Kuala Terengganu member of Parliament Datuk Razali Ismail on Nov 28.

In the 12th general election in March last year, Razali defeated Mohamad Sabu of PAS and an Independent candidate, Maimun Yusuf, with a 628-vote majority.