Reduced majority as BN win Rompin by-election

Datuk Hasan Arifin (fourth, left) after being announced the winner of the Rompin by-election earlier tonight.

ROMPIN: Barisan Nasional (BN) has succeeded in retaining the Rompin parliamentary seat (P091) after winning the by-election today.

Its candidate, Rompin UMNO division acting chief and former Pahang menteri besar Datuk Hasan Arifin, defeated PAS' Nazri Ahmad with a 8,895 majority after obtaining a total of 23,796 votes.

The Pahang PAS Youth chief only garnered 14,901 votes.

The win was announced by the Election Commission (EC) official vote-tallying centre at the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Silver Jubilee Hall in Kuala Rompin here at 10.25pm.

According to the EC, turnout for the by-election was 73 percent of the 53,294 registered voters in the Rompin constituency, which is approximately 38,900.

The seat fell vacant after incumbent of 23 years Tan Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis was killed in a helicopter crash along with five others on April 4 near Semenyih in Selangor.

In the 2013 general election, Jamaluddin retained the seat by beating former Wanita PAS chief Nuridah Mohd Salleh with a majority of 15,114 votes. Voter turnout then was 85.9 percent.

The Rompin by-election is the ninth to be called since GE13 in May 2013.