PENANG, Jan 29 (Bernama) -- The huge victory of the Barisan Nasional (BN) in the Batu Talam by-election yesterday is proof of the Chinese voters' undivided support for the coalition in the constituency in Pahang, Gerakan Deputy President Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said Monday.

He said the support of the Chinese voters for the BN candidate this time around had increased compared with that during the last general election.

"Based on an analysis on the total number of voters in a village in Cheroh, the majority of whom are Chinese, their support for the BN was at the highest level," he told reporters after launching a business training programme for Small and Medium Industries organised by the Penang Skills Development Centre, here.

Abdul Aziz Mat Kiram of the BN beat independent candidate Ng Chee Pang by a majority of 5,857 votes to win the by-election, necessitated by the death last month of the BN assemblyman Datuk Tengku Paris Tengku Razlan.

Koh, who is Penang chief minister, said there were fears over the Chinese support considering that the independent candidate was a Chinese but the candidate failed to draw support from the Chinese and Indian communities in Batu Talam.

He said the BN victory in Batu Talam was a signal for all BN leaders to continue to work hard for the people.

In IPOH, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Tajol Rosli Ghazali said the big BN victory was proof that the people had confidence in the Election Commission (EC).

He said the opposition parties had used the excuse of distrust in the EC to boycott the by-election.