In a nail-biting race, Democratic Action Party (DAP) man Wong Ho Leng, 50, edged out BN's candidate from the Sarawak United Peoples' Party, Mr Lau Hui Yew, 45, by just 398 votes in the parliamentary seat of Sibu.
BARISAN Nasional (BN) was handed a shock defeat in a by-election in Sarawak yesterday, dealing a blow to the ruling coalition ahead of crucial state elections here.
In a nail-biting race, Democratic Action Party (DAP) man Wong Ho Leng, 50, edged out BN's candidate from the Sarawak United Peoples' Party, Mr Lau Hui Yew, 45, by just 398 votes in the parliamentary seat of Sibu.
He polled 18,845 votes to Mr Lau's 18,447.
The last candidate, independent Narawi Haron, 60, got 232 votes. The winning margin is about 1 per cent.
The DAP's unexpected victory overturns the 3,200-majority that BN won at the last general election in 2008. Sibu had always been a BN stronghold.
It also gives the opposition its second parliamentary seat in Sarawak.
DAP pulled off a shocker to win the Sibu by-election by a narrow majority of 398 votes.
The upset win came after a poor voter turnout of only about 70% which was far below the 80% turnout expected by the Election Commission.
Wong Ho Leng polled 18,845 votes against Barisan Nasional's Robert Lau Hui Yew who had 18,447 votes.
The result sent shockwaves through the state which now has two members of Parliament from DAP. The other DAP MP is Kuching's Chong Chien Jen.
As rain fell steadily over Sibu after a week of fine weather, hardcore DAP supporters huddled under umbrellas outside the fence of the Sibu Civil Centre where the votes were being tallied.
The results were only announced at 11pm because of questions raised over the validity of the signature of a witness for the postal votes. However, there was no recount.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng who arrived at the Civic Centre with Wong had called a press conference earlier to question the delay in the counting of the 2,429 postal votes.
The EC explained that the delay was due to questions over the validity of the signature of a witness for the postal votes.
Wong said he would serve the constituents including those who did not vote for him.
His first words were: “Thank you Sibu, thank you Malaysia.”
Lim Kit Siang tweeted the win as “a Sibu miracle.”
SUPP president Tan Sri Dr George Chan, looking grim-faced, said his party accepted the verdict.
The Barisan candidate Lau comes from SUPP which is the second biggest Barisan component in Sarawak.
Dr Chan said Sarawak Barisan has never encoutered such “destructive campaigning from West Malaysia.
“We were completely overwhelmed,” said Dr Chan who is also Deputy Chief Minister.
Sarawak-born academic Prof James Chin of Monash University Sunway campus said the outcome was a clear signal for Chief Minister Tan Sri Taib Mahmud to go.
“It is not that the Foochow of Sibu rejected Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak or his policies. They just dislike Taib, they are telling him that his time is up,” said Chin.
Chin said the Sibu result also showed there was such a thing called the “delay effect” in politics.
“In 2008, the tsunami missed Sarawak. The Chinese in Sarawak are now catching up,” he added.
Independent Narawi Haron, who was making his second election bid, obtained only 232 votes.
For the first time, polling agents from the political parties were present when the military and police personnel cast their postal votes on Thursday.
