GEORGE TOWN: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has congratulated former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for leading Barisan Nasional (BN) to victory in the Cameron Highlands by-election on Saturday.
Guan Eng also congratulated BN candidate Ramli Mohd Noor, who was elected as the first Orang Asli Member of Parliament in the country's history.
"In addition, I would also like to congratulate the coalition of Umno and Pas, which managed to get MCA and MIC to support them in the by-election.
"This feat (getting MCA and MIC's support) was totally unexpected," he told a media conference after attending the Digital Library launch here, today.
Guan Eng said despite Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) loss, the party is still happy that it managed to gain three per cent more votes compared to the previous election.
In fact, he said, PH also managed to reduce BN and Pas votes from 4,184 in the 14th general election (GE-14) to 3,238 votes this time around.
"Despite the disappointment, we have managed to reduce their votes, and increase ours by three per cent.
"This gives us the confidence to fight and improve ourselves and the party machinery for the next by-election," he added.
BN retained the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat when Ramli won 12,038 votes to beat PH candidate M Manogaran (8,800 votes) and two independent candidates - Sallehudin Ab Talib (314 votes) and Wong Seng Yee (276 votes).
The by-election was held after the Election Court declared BN's Datuk C Sivarraajh’s win in the GE14 null and void, after finding corrupt practices were committed to induce voters to vote.