Barisan Nasional today retained the Batu Talam state seat in a very comfortable victory over a novice independent.

BN's Abdul Aziz Kiram steamrolled past the 22-year-old Ng Chee Pang by amassing a whopping 5,857-vote majority. This is 3,186 votes more than the majority achieved in 2004 general election.

Abdul Aziz, 46, gained 6,276 votes while Ng garnered 419 votes. Ng also lost his RM5,000 deposit. There were 385 spoilt votes.

Returning Officer Abdul Kadir Awang Bakar made the announcement at about 8pm at the Raub Silver Jubilee Hall. Also present was Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Both the candidates were not at the venue when the result was announced with Abdul Aziz arriving some minutes later, to be mobbed by his supporters.

The bigger majority is more significant for BN as the turnout for the by-election was slightly lower than what was achieved in the last general election.

Today some 7,131 or 67.32 percent of the 10,525 registered voters for the Batu Talam state seat went to the polls until the centres closed at 5pm.

In 2004, about 73.4 percent of the 10,866 registered voters voted to give a victory to BN in this traditional seat.

"The voter turnout is lower than the turnout during the 2004 general election. This may be due to the weak challenged posed," Election Commission Secretary Datuk Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor told reporters today.

He believed that the boycott by the opposition parties did not influence the voters.

He added early statistics showed that the elderly voters had outnumbered the young.

Time to keep promises

Earlier many political pundits were anticipating a lower turnout today, largely due to a boycott campaign by the opposition parties PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

However the boycott seemed to have no effect in the polls as BN managed to romp home with this comfortable win.

Najib, speaking to the media after the result was announced, said the big win indicated that the voters rejected the boycott ploy.

He also said that the victory was a proof of the people's confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

In 2004, the BN retained the seat by defeating a PAS candidate with a 2,671 majority.

The by-election is held following the death of BN assemblyman Tengku Paris Tengku Razman on Dec 27 last year.

Abdul Aziz told reporters that he would now work on fulfilling BN's promises to the people.

When asked if his huge majority was a result of a weak opponent, Abdul Aziz said: "Contest is a contest even of the opponent is a small player".

He also said that he was late while the election result was announced as he had to perform his prayers.

"And then I had to telephone my parents to tell them the good news," he added.

Najib's command

Najib, who had been busy campaigning in Batu Talam since the nomination day, had tasked the BN machinery to ensure a victory with more than 3,000-vote majority.

Even the candidate, Abdul Aziz was confident on gaining a larger majority, stating that the voters, irregardless of race, have given positive responses to his election campaign.

"The voters are not voting for me, they are voting for BN," he told malaysiakini yesterday.

His opponent Ng however has been asking for a chance from the voters to give him enough votes so that he would not lose his deposit.

Ng had also wanted Abdul Aziz to be disqualified for allegedly abusing the government machinery in his campaigning but to no avail.

Ng could not be reached for immediate comments today.

(Additional reporting by Bede Hong, Kuek Ser Kuang Keng, Muda Mohd Noor and K Kabilan)