KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 31 female candidates out of the 127 who contested parliamentary seats in the 15th General Election (GE15) have secured the people's mandate.
Meanwhile, a total of 15 out of 60 candidates contesting the state seats in Perlis, Perak, Pahang, and Bugaya in Sabah managed to win their respective seats.
Of those contesting parliamentary seats, 16 were Pakatan Harapan candidates, seven were from Perikatan Nasional, five were from Gabungan Parti Sarawak, three were from Barisan Nasional and one was from Warisan.
For state seats, seven were from Pakatan, five were from Perikatan and three were from Barisan.
Among the PH candidates who managed to win seats were former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail who won the Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary seat with a majority of 9,817 votes, while Teo Nie Ching, Teresa Kok Sim and Hannah Yeoh retained the Kulai, Seputeh and Segambut seats respectively.
Additionally, former Tourism Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Nancy Shukri secured the Santubong parliamentary seat with a 19,485-vote majority as a GPS candidate and Datuk Rubiah Wang retained the Kota Samarahan parliamentary seat on a ticket under the same coalition.
A fresh face fielded by GPS, Rodiyah Sapiee defeated Pakatan candidate Cikgu Lahaji to win the Batang Sadong parliamentary seat with a majority of 14,893 votes.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad won the Parit Sulong parliamentary constituency with a majority of 11,474 votes after obtaining 25,740 votes, and as such is among the Barisan women candidates who managed to secure seats.
Besides her, UMNO Supreme Council member, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said retained the Pengerang parliamentary seat when she managed to garner 21,738 votes as well as Datuk Siti Aminah Aching who won the Beaufort parliamentary seat.
Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin of Perikatan defended the Masjid Tanah seat which she won in GE14 on a Barisan ticket after obtaining 25,604 votes with a majority of 4,411 and defeating Barisan's Abdul Hakim Abdul Wahid.
Warisan Wirawati (women) chief Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis became the only female candidate from the party to win a seat when she defended the Kota Belud parliamentary constituency with a majority of 4,582 votes.
Meanwhile, Pakatan's Permatang Pauh stronghold fell into the hands of the challenger from Perikatan when Nurul Izzah Anwar lost to Muhammad Fawwaz Mat Jan with a majority of 5,272 votes.
Ampang Member of Parliament Datuk Zuraida Kamarudin failed to defend the seat in the fight against nine other contenders when she only managed to garner 4,589 votes as a Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) candidate.
The number of women candidates contesting in GE15 went down from 251 to 187 candidates in contrast with GE14.
Pakatan managed to win 82 parliamentary seats, Perikatan (73), Barisan (30), GPS (22), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) (6), Warisan (3), PBM one seat and two independent candidates. - Bernama
