GE14: Liow, Subramaniam, Mah fail to defend seats
KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (Bernama) -- In what has been a truly shocking 14th General Election (GE14), three Barisan Nasional (BN) component party leaders lost their respective parliamentary seat contests.
MIC president Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam failed to defend his 'fortress' - the Segamat parliamentary seat, which he had held since 2004, losing to PKR candidate Datuk Seri R. Santhara Kumar with a vote-majority of 5,476.
The three-cornered clash saw Subramaniam garnering 18,584 votes, against 24,060 votes for Santhara, and just 2,676 votes for PAS candidate Khairul Faizi Ahmad Kamil, who lost his deposit.
Subramaniam is the second MIC president to lose in a GE after Tun S. Samy Vellu was defeated in the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat against Parti Sosialis Malaysia's Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, who competed on the PKR ticket in the 2008 GE.
Meanwhile, Gerakan president Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong lost in the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat contest to PKR candidate Nga Kor Ming, who is also Perak DAP president.
In the three-cornered fight which also included PAS, Mah won 17,991 votes against 29,170 votes for Nga, who won with a majority of 11,179 votes.
Much like Subramaniam, Mah is also the second Gerakan president to have lost in a GE after Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon lost in the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat contest to DAP in GE12.
Mah had previously won the parliamentary seat in the 2014 by-election, defeating DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud with a majority of 238 votes.
Also losing his seat is MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, who after four terms in charge of the Bentong parliamentary seat, lost in a three-cornered contest by a majority of 2,032 votes.
Liow obtained 23,684 votes, while winning candidate Wong Tack of PKR got 25,716, and N. Balasubramaniam of PAS, 5,706 votes.
With the defeat, Liow made history as the first MCA president to lose in a GE.
GE14 also witnessed the downfall of several BN figures, including former Johor menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin who lost the Permas state seat to Che Zakaria Mohd Salleh (PKR) with a 8,746 vote-majority.
He also lost in the Pasir Gudang parliamentary seat contest to PKR's Hassan Abdul Karim in a four-cornered fight, by a majority of 24,726 votes.
Felda chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Samad also failed to defend the Johor Bahru parliamentary seat, losing to PKR candidate Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir by a vote-majority of 19,782.
Shahrir, 69, had previously won the Johor Bahru parliamentary seat six times.
Former communications and multimedia minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak also suffered a similar fate in the parliamentary seat contest for Kota Belud.
The UMNO Treasurer and Kota Belud UMNO Division chief lost to Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis from Parti Warisan Sabah, who won with a vote-majority of 4,262 in a four-cornered contest.
Former Melaka chief minister Tan Sri Ali Rustam once again failed to win the Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary seat, losing to incumbent Shamsul Iskandar by a vote-majority of 8,640.
Former second finance minister Datuk Seri Johari Ghani also lost to Rina Mohd Harun from PKR, while Tan Sri Zulhasnan Rafique lost in the Setiawangsa parliamentary seat contest
Zulhasnan was the Malaysian Ambassador to the United States, but resigned from the post to contest in GE14.
-- BERNAMA
