Mahkota polls: Landslide victory for BN, according to unofficial tally

KLUANG: Barisan Nasional has unofficially retained the Mahkota state seat with a thumping victory in a straight contest against Perikatan Nasional.

Barisan candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah clinched the victory with a total of 27,941 votes compared to Perikatan’s Mohamad Haizan Jaafar who received 7,332 votes.

All 121 streams have been counted.

Umno Secretary-General Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said this gives Syed Hussien a majority of 20,609 votes.

"Our deepest thanks to all our election machineries from Johor, other states as well as our friends in Pakatan Harapan - this is the work of the unity government.

“Thank you to the Chinese voters as well for giving us their strong support, as we won big in the Dorset district polling centre (PDM) where Barisan received 3,159 votes against Perikatan’s 1,040.

“In the previous state election, we lost significantly in that PDM yet this time, we received a majority of 2,119 votes,” he said the Barusan Nasional command centre here on Saturday (Sept 28).

The mood at the Barisan command centre was upbeat, with supporters cheering each time Asyraf Wajdi announced the polling results as the numbers rolled in.

The Mahkota state seat, which falls under the Kluang parliamentary constituency, has 66,318 registered voters.

According to the Election Commission, the overall voter turnout for the by-election was 53.97%.

This was lower than the turnout of 57.34% recorded in the 2022 Johor state election.