Alice in wonderland over triumph in Lanang constituency

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SIBU: DAP’s Alice Lau captured the Lanang parliamentary seat yesterday, beating BN-SUPP candidate Datuk Tiong Thai King with a majority of 8,630 votes.

In the straight fight yesterday, Lau garnered 26,613 votes against Tiong, who polled 17,983.

Lau made amends by beating the four-term incumbent, having lost to Bawang assemblyman Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh by 1,808 votes in the 2011 state election.

Earlier, the odds were an uphill fight against her more experienced candidate.

Returning Officer Hii Chang Kee announced the result at 8.45pm yesterday at the tallying center at SMK Methodist here.

Hii also disclosed that voters’ turnout was 78.67 per cent where total rejected votes were 304.

Tiong, who is also Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman, however, was not present.

It was a nerve-wrecking moment as the more experienced BN candidate was trailing the younger candidate in urban polling streams.

At 6.49pm, Lau was already in the driver’s seat, polling 8,190 against Tiong, who garnered 7,369.

By 6.55pm, the lead had widened where Lau garnered 9,791 against Tiong at 8,313.

Then, shouts erupted among the opposition supporters as Lau’s vote tally climbed to 14,802 whereas Tiong was hard-pressed to catch up, having garnered 10,082 at 7.11pm.

Despite the upset, Tiong had better luck in the polling streams located in the outskirts where he outperformed Lau.

At 7.44pm, the scoreboard showed Lau securing 23,777 votes against Tiong, who pulled 14,192.

By then, the gap was mathematically too wide for the BN candidate to close in despite the postal, where Tiong secured 527 votes against Lau who garnered 100 votes.

The total number of registered voters in Lanang constituency stood at 57,143.

In the 2008 general election, Tiong (BN-SUPP) polled 19,476 votes against Wong Kee Woan (DAP) 14,612.

Police presence was seen in every corner of the centre to ensure law and order.

There were 109 teams taking care of 36 polling stations for the constituency.