SANDAKAN: Loud cheers and applause filled the air here today when DAP's Vivian Wong Shir Yee was announced winner of the by-election for the Sandakan parliamentary seat, previously held by her father, the late Datuk Stephen Wong.
The 30-year-old defended the seat after garnering 16,012 votes – an 11,521-vote majority over the party's closest rival, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).
Election Commission (EC) returning officer Mohd Hamsan Awang Supian announced the official result at the ballot tallying centre at SMJK Tiong Hua here, today.
PBS candidate Datuk Linda Tsen Thau Lin, who was a two-term Batu Sapi MP, polled 4,491 votes.
As for the three independent hopefuls, former Pas and Parti Amanah Negara state leader Hamzah Abdullah came in third with 788 votes, followed by oil palm company executive Chia Siew Yung with 178 votes. Sulaiman Abdul Samat, who was a former administrative assistant at the Sandakan Parliamentary Service Centre, obtained 126 votes.
A total of 234 ballots were spoilt.
All three independent candidates failed to secure one-eighth of the total votes, and therefore had to forfeit their security deposits submitted to the EC in order to contest in the by-election.
According to the EC, voter turnout was 54.44 per cent of the 39,684 eligible voters.
In early voting on May 7, voter turnout was 75 per cent of the 270 eligible voters.
EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said that 172 voters cast their ballots via postal voting.
Meanwhile, Sabah police commissioner Datuk Omar Mammah said the voting process at all polling centres involving 90 streams was smooth sailing.
He said that the relatively low turnout was not due to any “security factor”, as the police had increased their presence and stepped up safety measures at every polling centre to prevent untoward incident.
He said that all ballot boxes were transferred to the vote tallying centre with police escorts.
Throughout the two-week campaign, police received 12 reports on various election offences, including on alleged vote-buying by DAP.
Six investigation papers (IPs) were opened, three of which involve poster and bunting misuse under Section 427 of the Election Offences Act 1954, and under Section 426 of the same act.
Three other IP reports were opened under Section 504 of the Penal Code for disseminating slander which could bring disrepute, Section 24 (b) of the Election Offences Act 1954 for holding talks without permit, and Section 10 (a) of the same act on the giving of money to voters.
The Sandakan by-election was called after Wong died on March 28. He was also Sabah DAP chairman and state Health and People’s Wellbeing minister.
In the 14th general election, Wong defended his seat with a majority of 10,098 votes against Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Lim Ming Hoo, who obtained 8,996 votes.