Umno’s Mat Hasan trounces rivals, clinches Rantau
RANTAU POLLS SENDAYAN: Umno acting president Mohamad Hasan retained his hold on Rantau state seat by trouncing his rival, Rantau PKR deputy division chief Dr S Streram in a four cornered fight that also involved independents R Malarvizhi and Mohd Nor Yassin.
Mohamad gained 10,397 votes against Streram’s 5,887 votes with a majority of 4,510 votes. Both independents lost their deposits after gaining less than one eighth of the total votes. Malarvizhi received 83 votes and Nor, 79.
A total of 146 votes were rejected and the final voter turnout stood at 79.31%.
There were 20,926 voters comprising 20,804 ordinary voters, four absentee voters and 118 early voters.
The racial breakdown of the voters in this semi rural seat is as follows: 11,615 Malays (55.51 per cent); 3,863 Chinese (18.46 per cent); 5,441 Indians (26 per cent); and seven categorised as others (0.03 per cent).
Mohamad, better known as Tok Mat, is a three term Rantau assemblyman. Today’s by-election came about after the Election Court nullified his uncontested victory during GE14.
The nullification was done based on the fact that Streram was denied entry into the nomination centre by the Election Commission staff during the national polls.
The PAS candidate who was supposed to contest then too pulled out.
