Ewon Benedick wins Penampang for PH, defeats Warisan incumbent Darell Leiking

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Ewon (fourth left) celebrates with PH supporters including Kapayan assemblywoman Jannie Lasimbang.

KOTA KINABALU (Nov 19): Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Datuk Ewon Benedick has wrested away the Penampang parliamentary seat from Parti Warisan’s Datuk Darell Leiking, who has held the seat for two terms.

Ewon, who is Upko vice-president, polled 29,066 votes against Darell’s 14,656 for a convincing majority of 14,410 votes.

Gabungan Rakyat Sabah’s (GRS) Kenny Chua only managed 6,719 votes, while sole independent candidate Richard Jimmy obtained just 289 votes, resulting in him losing his deposit.

A total of 51,301 votes were cast, with 445 spoilt votes, while 126 ballot papers were unreturned.

Voter turnout in the constituency was 66.4 per cent.

The Penampang parliamentary seat has a total of 77,214 voters.