JOHOR BAHRU: Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Suhaizan Kaiat triumphed in the Pulai parliamentary by-election yesterday with a majority of 18,641 votes to retain the seat for the coalition, which won it previously through the late Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub.
Suhaizan, who was making his seventh appearance in electoral contests, polled 48,283 votes to beat Zulkifli Jaafar of Perikatan Nasional (PN) and independent candidate Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi, who obtained 29,642 votes and 528 votes respectively. Samsudin lost his deposit.
The result was announced by returning officer Miswan Yunus at 10.09 pm at the vote-tallying centre at Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim here.
Suhaizan’s victory makes him the first MP to be elected with the support of the PH-Barisan Nasional (BN) alliance, which is part of the Unity Government.
Suhaizan, who is Johor Amanah vice-chairman, was a political secretary to Salahuddin, who was also the Simpang Jeram state assemblyman.
Suhaizan had been unsuccessful in his six previous attempts in elections since 2004, including for the Parit Sulong parliamentary seat in 2004, Simpang Renggam parliamentary seat (2013), Kukup state seat (2018) and Pulai Sebatang state seat (2022).
In the 15th general election, Salahuddin won the Pulai seat with a 33,174-vote majority after polling 64,900 votes.
According to the Election Commission, there are 166,653 registered voters in Pulai.
The seat fell vacant following the death of Salahuddin on July 23. - Bernama