MANEK URAI (Kelantan) - THE opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) suffered a shock on Tuesday when it managed to only squeak through with an extremely narrow victory in a by-election, in what was considered a safe seat in its own bastion of rural Kelantan.

Recount after recount finally ended with a nail-biting finish in the Manek Urai by-election. The final tally: a mere 65-vote majority.

The number came as a blow to the Islamist party which had already begun celebrating midway through voting on Tuesday.

By mid-afternoon, PAS had predicted a 2,000-vote margin, which would have been higher than the 1,300-vote margin it had scored in last year's general election.

Not surprisingly, Umno was jubilant over its performance in this overwhelmingly Malay constituency, feeling that it has managed to halt the apparently unstoppable momentum of the opposition since the elections in March last year.

It would also, no doubt, be seen as a boost for the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak who assumed office in April.

The narrow win in Manek Urai was likely caused by disillusion among voters over the endless bickering in PAS and the PR. Most pundits and politicians on both sides had given PAS the edge in this by-election as it had lost the seat only once since 1986.

The high turnout of 87.3 per cent also hinted at a landslide victory for the party because most of the thousands of out-of-town voters, who travelled back to this remote constituency located some 100km from the state capital of Kota Baru, were thought to be PAS supporters.

But when the results were finally announced, the PAS candidate - fish wholesaler Fauzi Abdullah - polled 5,348 votes against Umno's Tuan Aziz Tuan Mat, a former civil servant who garnered 5,283 votes. There were 90 spoilt votes.

Both men were equally popular, and the vote actually came down to the choice of parties. Kelantan PAS leader Husam Musa blamed the narrow victory on vote-buying. 'We lost as a result of money politics,' he said.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

carolynh@sph.com.sg