KUALA LUMPUR: It may have been a crowded ballot paper in Batu with 10 candidates, but this was not a hindrance for Pakatan Harapan to retain the seat in the 15th General Election (GE15).
Batu voters made their choice clear as Pakatan’s P. Prabakaran won with a landslide 45,716 votes in the 10-cornered tussle against Barisan Nasional (BN), Perikatan Nasional, Warisan, Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) and four other Independent candidates.
The highly anticipated fight between Prabakaran, from PKR, and Independent candidate Tian Chua also fizzled out with the latter only garnering 4,603 votes.
In a message before official results were announced by the Election Commission (EC), Tian Chua conceded his defeat to Pakatan in the parliamentary seat in GE15.
Praba had contested as an Independent in GE14 and was endorsed by Tian Chua then.
Tian Chua, whose real name is Chua Tian Chang, had not contested in GE14 and was hoping to make a comeback this election under Pakatan.
The former two-time Batu MP stood in the constituency as an Independent in GE15 when his party, PKR, chose not to field him.
Meanwhile, Datuk A. Kohilan Pillay from BN received 10,398 votes while Azhar Yahya from Perikatan garnered 23,475 votes.
Social activist and lawyer Siti Kasim who contested as an independent candidate only managed to garner 653 votes.
Fellow Independents Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharudin @ Cleo and Too Cheng Huat (running as Too Gao Lan) received 112 votes and 628 votes, respectively.
Meanwhile, Wan Azliana Wan Adnan (Pejuang) had 849 votes, while PRM’s Mohd Zulkifli Abdul Fattah received 137 votes.
Warisan’s Naganathan Pillai (known on the ballot as Nathan Batu) had 575 votes.
Out of 113,863 total voters in Batu, turnout was 77.15%.
