Ousted menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin won the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat, beating BN candidate Ismail Saffian and independent Kamarul Rami-zu Idris.
The 52-year-old polled 21,860 votes against Ismail's 19,071 while Kamarul only managed to secure 62 votes and lost his deposit.
Nizar's 2,789-vote majority over Ismail is almost double the majority obtained by former Pas member of parliament, the late Roslan Shah-rom, in last year's general election.Roslan defeated BN candidate and Umno treasurer Datuk Seri Azim Zabidi with a 1,566-vote majority.
Nizar's victory, however, was not a surprise as political observers had expected him to garner sympathy votes due to the political impasse in the state.
Nizar was told to step down as menteri besar on Feb 5 by the Perak ruler after Pakatan Rakyat lost the majority in the state assembly when three state assemblymen quit their parties and declared themselves as independents "friendly" to BN.
Asked as to his immediate concerns, Mohammad Nizar said he wants to unify the people of Bukit Gantang so that they can work with PR.
"We are going to request for a quick and urgent dissolution of the Perak government so that the constitutional crisis in Perak can be resolved and that will be my immediate action to stabilise the political scenario in Perak,” he added.
Ismail said he accepted the results of the polls.
"Now, it is time for Nizar to act on the promises he has made to the people here,” he said.
The Election Commission said 75.1 per cent or 41,626 of the 55,562 voters cast their ballots despite yesterday being a working day and a one-hour downpour in the afternoon. The total number of registered voters is 55,462, of which 63.5% are Malays, 27.1% Chinese, and 9.1% Indians.
The semi-rural parliamentary constituency is made up of the three state constituencies of Changkat Jering, Trong and Kuala Sepetang
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