FULL REPORT KUALA LUMPUR: Barisan Nasional has scored a double victory in the Batu Sapi and Galas by-elections, giving Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's administration a resounding stamp of approval and sending the Anwar Ibrahim-led opposition back to the drawing board.
For the Batu Sapi parliamentary seat in Sabah, BN candidate Linda Tsen won with a landslide victory, chalking up a margin of 6,359 votes over her nearest rival, PKR's Ansari Andullah.
Her majority was even greater than her late husband Edmund Chong's in 2008 when he got 3,708-vote majority. The latter's death in a traffic accident had paved the way for the by-election.
Tsen garnered 9,773 votes while Ansari got 3,414. The other contender in the three-way tussle, SAPP president Yong Teck Lee came in a disappointing third with 2,031 votes despite initial projections that the former chief minister would win the seat.