This means there’s 82 + 3 non-BN MPs in the parliament. The PAS candidate overturned a 628 deficit into a majority of 2,631, meaning there’s a 3,259 change of voters’ choice. This  cannot go unnoticed in the BN camp.

– The threat of Hudud law, the open spat between PAS and DAP because of the Hudud trap, and the pouring of funds into Kuala Terengganu failed to influence the voters.

– The voters were not worried that the PAS candidate is also a state assemblyman.

– They were not impressed that the BN candidate was a Senator nor a personal aide of current PM.

– The hardwork of Deputy PM Najib also did not pay off.

The majority is not something that BN cannot overcome in the next election, its barely 5% of the overall voters. So, there’s still some sliver of hope. However, its a big blow for UMNO since their image has suffered. They could not deliver the goods when it mattered. One can try blame the Chinese voters from outstation who did not turn up (MCA says up to 3,000 of them), but their votes may have actually increased the majority for PAS.

So what swayed the voters? Local issues? Anwar Ibrahim? candidate personality? The analyst on Awani (Prof Hasbullah I think) said that some of the voters depended on Internet or alternative media, which were provided by their relatives/friends in west coast. Also, both the candidate did not touch on two major issues – Obama and Gaza. He also said if  more young voters voted, the opposition will win (If I heard correctly).

If one looks at the statistics NST reported on Internet presence, it seems BN had learnt their lesson. BN candidate has more hits.

If Google hits are anything to go by, the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary by-election, Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, is a winner.

Till yesterday afternoon, Wan Farid was the clear winner with 467,000 hits, against a mere 136,000 hits for Pas candidate Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut and a measly 1,170 hits for independent candidate Azharuddin Mamat @ Adam.

Even “Kuala Terengganu by-election” scored more Google hits, at 137,000 searches, than the two opposition candidates.

A more precise search with the names of candidate combined with the words, “Kuala Terengganu by-election”, however saw a slightly different set of results, with Wahid scoring 75,900 hits.

In second place was Wan Farid, with 47,100 hits. Azharuddin came in last again, with 497 hits.

On YouTube, both Wan Farid and Wahid tied with 13 videos when their names were keyed in along with the words “Kuala Terengganu by-election”.

Maybe in Kuala Terengganu, Internet presence did not matter much. The rumours of unhappiness over candidate selection surfaced on both sides, so it may be a cause, especially for BN.

The impact of this win will worry not only UMNO, but I believe DAP as well. A win for PAS may signal the willingness to accept Hudud by KT voters. It also means that without PAS, DAP can never hope to be in the parliament as the ruling government since Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu are PAS strongholds. My guess is that this unholy alliance will continue and the parties will cross the bridge when they come to it.

Meanwhile, its Pakatan 2, BN 0.