SIBU: After three unsuccessful attempts, State DAP chairman Wong Ho Leng finally made a breakthrough and won the Sibu parliamentary seat when he beat BN-SUPP candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew with a 398-vote majority.
Wong garnered 18,845 votes while Hui Yew collected 18,447 votes. Independent candidate Narawi Haron managed to garner only 232 votes and lost his RM10,000 deposit.
Voter turnout was 59.86 per cent with a total of 32,742 voters casting their votes.
The by-election was held following the demise of its MP Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew on April 9 due to cancer.
After Returning Officer Wong See Meng announced the official results at about 10.58 pm, supporters of DAP and its allies inside the Civic centre shouted words of joy, accompanied by screams of ‘Reformasi’ and ‘Vote for DAP.’
Wong was a picture of exuberance as he expressed gratitude to the voters for giving him their solid support.
“Together, we will bring change to Sibu and my victory today is just the beginning for historic changes in Sibu,” he said to thundering applause from his supporters.
Among those accompanying him were DAP national advisor Lim Kit Siang and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
After the press conference, Wong exited the Civic centre and was greeted with thunderous applaud from the thousands of DAP supporters who had earlier camped there.
About 10 minutes later, Hui Yew walked up to him and congratulated Wong for his victory.
In 1995, Wong took on the late Lau but he lost the election tamely, garnering 10,472 votes against Lau’s 15,317 votes.
In the 2004 election, Wong took another gamble and managed to secure 17,334 against Lau who garnered 20,689 votes.
In the March 2008 election, Wong was again no match for Lau, securing 15,746 votes against Lau’s 19,295 votes.
Wong was trailing Hui Yew when the votes from the rural areas poured in and, at one stage, Hui Yew even led by more than 2,000 votes.
However, when the ballot boxes from the polling stations in the urban areas came in, Wong gradually reduced the deficit.
When the votes from the 51st ballot box was announced, Wong managed to overtake Lau for the first time and won by a majority of 49 votes.
He widened the majority votes to 1,063 by the time the votes from the 77th ballot box was announced and 2,036 majority votes when it reached the 90th ballot box.
At about 9pm, and when the results of the remaining 11 ballot boxes were about to be released, disaster struck.
It took the Election Commission more than a two-hour wait before the votes from through the postal ballot boxes were finally brought into the counting centre.
From the postal ballot boxes, Lau secured 2,323 votes while Wong only garnered 70 votes, while Narawi got 36.
There were 208 spoilt votes and 190 ballot papers were not returned
