Pakatan comfortably retains both Pulai, Simpang Jeram
JOHOR BARU, Sept 9 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) has officially won both the Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram state by-elections, despite bad weather and low voter turnouts earlier.
The Election Commission (EC) declared the PH candidates as the winners for both by-elections after the official vote tallying ended tonight.
PH managed to retain both constituencies from its closest rival, Perikatan Nasional (PN), with strong majorities for the urban Pulai parliament seat and the semi-rural Simpang Jeram state seat in Johor.
Ballot boxes for the Pulai by-election arrive at the vote counting centre at Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim in Johor Baru September 9, 2023. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
Pulai, which makes up part of the Johor Baru city, saw PH’s Suhaizan Kayat command a comfortable win with a 18,641-vote majority by polling 48,283 votes in a three-cornered contest. Closest rival PN’s Zulkifli Jaafar polled 29,642 votes and independent hopeful Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi won 528 votes.
In Simpang Jeram, located near Muar in north-west Johor, PH’s Nazri Abdul Rahman polled 13,844 votes, while PN’s Mohd Mazri Yahya received 10,330 votes, while independent candidate S. Jeganathan managed only 311 votes in the three-way contest.
For Pulai, the official results were announced at 10.10pm by EC’s Pulai parliamentary by-election returning officer Miswan Yunus at the Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim in Johor Baru.
The EC said voter turnout for the Pulai by-election was 47.33 per cent.
Suhaizan, who is the former Johor Speaker, managed to defend the Pulai parliamentary seat for PH component Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) that was held by the late Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub since 2018.
Suhaizan was also the former political secretary to Salahuddin under the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry.
This is the first time in his political career that Suhaizan has won an election, but was his seventh attempt. Previously, the former PAS Youth chief contested in the parliamentary seats of Simpang Renggam in 2013 and Parit Sulong in 2004. He also stood as a state seat candidate in Kempas twice in 2008 and 2013, Kukup in 2018 and the most recent was in Pulai Sebatang last year.
For Simpang Jeram, the official announcement was made by EC Simpang Jeram state by-elections returning officer Jamil Hasni Abdullah at 9.10pm at the Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim in Muar.
The EC said voter turnout for the Simpang Jeram by-election was at 60.85 per cent.
The Simpang Jeram state by-election was a first electoral victory for Nazri Abdul Rahman from PH component Amanah.
The former municipal engineer faced stiff competition from PN candidate, medical surgeon Dr Mohd Mazri, who was seen as a strong rival.
Both by-elections were called following the death of its incumbent Salahuddin, who was also the Amanah deputy president, due to a brain hemorrhage on July 23
