SHAH ALAM (Aug 4): Pakatan Harapan succeeded in defending the Sungai Kandis State seat today, after its candidate Mohd Zawawi Abdul Mughni from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) won the by-election with a majority of 5,842 votes.

The victory is testament to his popularity among the 51,230 registered voters in the constituency.

Earlier tonight, the Election Commission announced that Mohd Zawawi managed to secure 15,427 votes, while his two opponents, Barisan Nasional's Datuk Lokman Noor Adam and Independent K. Murty garnered 9,585 votes and 97 votes respectively.

The EC also said that there were 173 spoilt votes while voter turn-out was 49.4 percent.

On July 2, the Sungai Kandis State seat was left vacant after PKR lawmaker Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei passed away due to lymphoma.

In GE14, Shuhaimi had won the State seat with a 12,480-vote majority, but the voter turn-out was much higher then at 85.8 percent.

Mohd Zawawi's victory was announced by the election returning officer, who is also Shah Alam mayor, Datuk Ahmad Zaharin Mohd Saad at Dewan Tanjung MBSA here.

About 500 PKR supporters cheered loudly and shouts and chants of "reformasi", a slogan which is synonymous with PKR, were also heard.

The Sg Kandis by-election was said to be the litmus test for both political coalitions. In terms of voter demographics, Malays comprised 72% of the registered voters, followed by Chinese (12%), Indians (16%) and others (1%).