A Republican politician has won a primary election in the US, days after killing himself.

Bill Nojay, 59, has been picked by voters to represent the party in the New York State Assembly's 133rd District in November - despite shooting himself in front of a police officer in Rochester on Friday.

The vocal campaigner for gun rights and Donald Trump was reportedly under scrutiny from the FBI, and facing a fraud trial in Cambodia.

His election means that local Republican leaders, who encouraged voters to back Mr Nojay despite his death, will now pick someone to take on Democrat challenger Barbara Baer in November.

"I really don't know what to say," said Mr Nojay's Republican rival, Richard Milne.


"It's such an unusual situation."

While hoping that county Republican leaders put him on the ballot, Mr Milne was critical of the "powers that be".

"They really did some things in the past few days that were in poor taste in my opinion to sway the vote," he said.

"I really believe we would have fared better with Mr Nojay still alive."

According to unofficial results, Mr Milne was trailing by nearly 1,000 of the 4,500 votes cast.

Image: Mr Nojay (C) shot himself in front of a police officer. Pic: New York State Assembly

Father-of-three Mr Nojay was elected to the Assembly in 2012, representing a district that covers parts of Rochester and the Finger Lakes area.

He backed Mr Trump when the Republican presidential candidate previously considered running for governor of New York, and criticised stronger gun control laws introduced after the Sandy Hook school shooting.

He also presented a conservative talk radio show.

Authorities have not discussed what might have driven him to take his own life, but according to local media reports in Rochester, he was due to surrender to the FBI to face fraud charges on the afternoon he died.

He shot himself at his family's cemetery plot in Rochester near his brother's grave.

He was also facing trial in Cambodia on fraud charges, accused with two other men of cheating an investor of $1m in a proposed rice exporting business.

Mr Nojay denied any wrongdoing, saying: "All the people I've worked with have been honourable people, but again, some of them have done well, and some of them have stumbled.

"That's just the nature of small business work," he told Rochester's WHAM radio the day before he died.

Posthumous elections are rare, but not unheard of.

Since 1962, four people who passed away close to election day have been elected to the US House of Representatives.

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