KUALA KRAI: The Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate in the Manik Urai state seat by-election, Tuan Aziz Tuan Mat, 39, accepted the decision of the voters Tuesday with resignation.

He said his defeat in the by-election would not weaken his spirit to serve the community and struggle for their lot.

"All weaknesses will be studied for improvement so as to give a stiffer fight to the opposing party in future.

"As the Kuala Krai UMNO division Youth head, I will work at getting the youths to support the party," he told reporters here tonight.

PAS won the by-election with a slim majority of 65 votes when its candidate Mohd Fauzi Abdullah secured 5,348 votes against the 5,283 obtained by Tuan Aziz, a difference of 0.61 percent.

Tuan Aziz said he accepted the defeat as part of the democratic process.

He thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as well as the BN Manik Urai by-election machinery led by Kelantan UMNO liaison chief Datuk Mustapa Mohamed for giving PAS a stiff fight.

"Although I lost, we managed to reduce PAS' majority votes," he said. (Bernama)