Mastura, the widow of incumbent Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad, won with a majority of 6,969 votes, edging out Dr Najihatussalehah Ahmad of PAS, Prof Dr Ahmad Termizi Ramli of Amanah and independent candidate Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary, in the four-cornered fight.
Mastura, whose campaigning was limited as she was still in mourning, garnered 12,653 votes, while Najihatussalehah garnered 5,684 votes; and Dr Ahmad 4,883 votes.
Izat lost his deposit after receiving only 54 votes.
The win was announced by Election Commission (EC) returning officer Mior Muhammad Jamil Mior Zakaria at the Dewan Jubli Perak vote-tallying centre, here, at 10pm.
The number of rejected votes was 239 and voter turnout was 71.5 percent.
Mastura was not present during the announcement. She however cast her vote at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Perempuan Muzwin this morning.
Her sons, Wan Emir Astar, Wan Imar Izzat, Wan Iskandar, and Wan Muhammad Ammar were present on her behalf at the vote-tallying centre.
Also present was Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who had earlier visited Mastura at her home.
The by-election was triggered by the death of Wan Mohammad in a helicopter crash in Sarawak last month.
In GE13, Wan Mohammad emerged the victor in a three-way contest against independent Kamilia Ibrahim and Khalil Idham Lim Abdullah of PAS.
Wan Mohammad won by 1,082 votes, after garnering 14,218 votes against Khalil’s 13,136 and Kamilia’s 447 votes.
A first-time candidate in Kuala Kangsar after having been the assemblyman for Bukit Chandan (a state seat under Kuala Kangsar) for one term, he took over the parliamentary seat from former Umno Wanita chief Rafidah Aziz.
BN was widely expected to retain the seat, with research firm Politweet, predicting BN’s victory in the Kuala Kangsar constituency yesterday.
It had attributed this to the multi-cornered fight, which would divide voters and work to BN’s advantage.
The Politweet study also revealed it was unclear whether Chinese voters, who were the main factor behind Pakatan Rakyat’s performance in GE13, would support PAS or Amanah.
Malaysiakini had earlier reported that BN had taken more than 52% of the votes in Jerlun, a Chinese-dominated area of Kuala Kangsar.