KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah retained the Mahkota state seat after after winning in a straight contest against Perikatan Nasional (PN).

Syed Hussien secured 18,649 votes, while PN’s Mohamad Haizan Jaafar received 4,748, said Umno secretary-general Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, according to The Star.

“We have won unofficially,” said Asyraf at the BN command centre.

Although some ballot boxes are yet to be counted, he said that Syed Hussien had already won based on the first-past-the-post system.

This gives Syed Hussien a majority of 13,901 votes as of 7.15pm.

The by-election was triggered by the death of the incumbent, Datuk Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain, 63, on August 2.