KOTA KINABALU, Nov 20 — Parti Warisan’s Wirawati chief Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis has successfully defended the Kota Belud parliamentary seat with 25,148 votes.

She defeated Barisan Nasional (BN) heavyweight Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan and Madely Modily Bangali from Pakatan Harapan (PH).

She also managed to slightly better her majority to 4,582 votes compared to 4,262 in 2018.

Abdul Rahman, who was a two-term Kota Belud MP, obtained 20,566 votes, while Madely managed 8,323 votes.

Munirah served as Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment deputy minister during the PH administration under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In July 2022, she was suspended from Parliament for two days for insisting that her motion on the claims of the Sulu Sultanate be discussed in the lower house.

A total of 55,272 votes were cast in the constituency with 749 being spoilt votes.

There were 486 unreturned ballot papers.

Voter turnout was 69.2 per cent from the total 79,885 registered voters. — Borneo Post