KUALA KRAI (July 14, 2009) : PAS retained the Manik Urai state seat after its candidate Mohd Fauzi Abdullah defeated Barisan Nasional's (BN) Tuan Aziz Tuan Mat by a narrow margin of 65 votes.

Mohd Fauzi Abdullah defeated Barisan Nasional's (BN) Tuan Aziz Tuan Mat by a narrow margin of 65 votes.

Mohd Fauzi, 50, polled 5,348 votes while Tuan Aziz, 39, obtained 5,283 votes.

The margin is a far cry from the party's 1,352-vote majority it obtained in the 2008 general election.

The result was announced by Returning Officer Adnan Hussin at the Dewan Petra, SMK Sultan Yahya Petra 1, here at 9.05pm.

The seat has 12,293 voters, including 25 postal voters. Voter turnout was 87% or 10,631.

The Election Commission (EC) which was expected to announce the result by 8pm could only do so about an hour later due to a recount following the razor-thin margin.

There are 117 spoilt votes while six ballot papers were not returned.

After a peaceful campaigning period, the polling today was marred by an incident in which PAS supporters threw stones at BN supporters at the Sungai Peria polling station, injuring two Puteri Umno members.

Police arrested a PAS supporter at the scene.

Several PAS supporters also used nasty and provocative language on Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin during a tour of several polling districts.

The by-election was held following the death of Ismail Yaacob of PAS on May 22.

Nine polling stations comprising 27 polling streams were opened at 8am and closed at 5pm.

Ismail won the seat in the 1985 general election but did not contest in the 2004 general election.

BN won the seat with a majority of 53 votes at that time through its candidate Mohamed Zulkifli Omar.

Ismail recontested the seat in the 12th general election and won with a majority of 1,352 votes.

Manik Urai is one of four state seats under the Kuala Krai parliamentary constituency. The others are Mengkebang, Guchil and Dabong. -- BERNAMA