Penang CM Chow acknowledges loss, cites unaddressed key issues

SHAH ALAM - Penang Pakatan Harapan (PH) Chairman Chow Kon Yeow has acknowledged defeat in the Sungai Bakap by-election, attributing the coalition’s loss to its inability to effectively address key issues important to the voters.

Speaking at the PH campaign centre in Jawi, Chow pointed to unofficial results that showed Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Abidin Ismail securing a decisive victory, with a larger majority than in the previous state assembly elections.

“Upon initial observation, these results indicate that we have not successfully convinced the public on national, state, and local issues deemed significant by the electorate,” he noted.

Chow also noted that PH planned to conduct a detailed post-mortem to evaluate the campaign’s strengths and weaknesses and understand the factors leading to the reduced majority.

According to unofficial results, Abidin garnered 13,407 votes, defeating Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) candidate Dr Joohari Ariffin, who secured 9,619 votes.

The by-election saw a lower voter turnout of 68 per cent, with 39,279 people eligible to vote.

Earlier in the counting process, PN had taken an early lead with 9,538 votes against PH’s 7,370 votes, as reported by a PKR source.

At that time, results from 29 out of 65 voting streams showed PN holding a majority of 2,158 votes. Eventually, with results from 50 out of 66 streams counted, PN's lead solidified.

The by-election was held following the death of the incumbent, Nor Zamri Latiff, on May 24 due to stomach inflammation.

Nor Zamri, a Pas member and Nibong Tebal Pas division chief had previously won the seat in the state elections last year.