At 6.47pm, Mohamad had polled 8,755 votes to hold a clear lead over Karim, who obtained 7,304 votes. A total of 51 out of 70 ballot boxes have been counted.

The Kimanis parliamentary constituency has 29,644 voters, of whom 20,000 are Muslim Bumiputeras, and 8,000 non-Muslim Bumiputeras

Kimanis has been a BN stronghold, and was held by former foreign minister and Umno strongman Anifah Amin for three terms. He was re-elected in the 2018 general election but was unseated by a court decision which held that there had been irregularities.

The Federal Court declared Anifah’s election null and void, upholding an earlier election court ruling that there was misconduct by the Election Commission in handling Forms 13 and 14 that affected some 341 ballots.

The election petition was filed by Karim.

Anifah had narrowly won the seat in 2018, securing a 156-vote majority over Karim, who polled 11,786 votes. A third candidate, Jaafar Ismail of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, had 1,300 votes.