BEAUFORT: Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Mohamad Alamin won the Kimanis parliamentary by-election Saturday, garnering 12,706 votes or a majority of 2,029 votes against 10,677 votes received by Datuk Karim Bujang of Parti Warisan Sabah.
Some 320 votes were spoilt. Returning Officer, Jupery Etok, announced the official result at Datuk Seri Mohd Dun Banir Hall at 9.30pm. Karim, 67, was not present.
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It was BN's fifth by-election win since the 14th General Election (GE14), after Tanjong Piai, Semenyih, Cameron Highland and Rantau.
Some 23,703 voters, or about 79.92 per cent turned up to cast their votes by the time polling centres closed at 5pm.
BN won in almost all the Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) areas, showing they were united against the proposed Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS) for illegal immigrants.
All BN leaders, including Mohamad, 48, earlier gathered at the BN War Room at the Eagle Wood Inn in Bongawan before proceeding to the counting hall at 8.30pm, greeted by supporters and voters who were in jubilant mood.
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Sabah Umno Chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and Umno Supreme Council Member, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan cried in joy when they found out the unofficial result that BN was leading.
Umno President Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, ex-prime minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak and former Kimanis MP Datuk Seri Anifah Aman also accompanied Mohamad at the counting hall.
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Outside the counting hall, BN supporters and voters were singing jubilantly, thanking all voters in Kimanis and Sabah for voting BN and rejecting BN.
The Kimanis constituency has 29,664 voters, comprising 29,654 regular voters, nine early voters and one overseas absentee voter.
The gender breakdown is 14,800 men and 14,864 women. Bongawan has 16,273 voters and Membakut 13,391. There are 20 polling centres with 69 channels.
The by-election was necessitated by the Election Court’s nullification on Aug. 16, 2019, of Anifah’s win in Kimanis in the GE14 in May 2018.
Anifah, who won the seat on a BN ticket, quit Umno in September 2018 to become an independent MP. He held the seat for 20 years after winning it for the first time in 1999.
In GE14, Anifah had polled 11,942 votes to win by a 156-vote majority. Karim had secured 11,786 votes and a third candidate, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, had obtained 1,300 votes.
The court allowed a petition challenging the election result filed on June 18, 2018, by Karim. It ruled that the presence of additional ballot papers had influenced the results of the polls.
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On Dec 2, 2019, the Federal Court dismissed Anifah’s appeal to set aside the Election Court decision nullifying his victory. On Jan 3, this year, the Federal Court dismissed Anifah’s final legal challenge to stop the by-election.
