NIBONG TEBAL, June 21 — The battle for the Sungai Bakap state seat begins tomorrow with the nomination of candidates for the by-election at the Jawi Multipurpose Hall, Taman Desa Jawi, here.
Potential candidates are given an hour from 9 to 10 am to submit the nomination form before the list of eligible candidates is announced by the Returning Officer at the nomination centre.
The submission of nomination paper will be closed an hour after that and candidates will have 14 days to campaign to win votes in the constituency, starting after the declaration of candidates running tomorrow until 11.59 pm on July 5.
Sungai Bakap is one of the three state assembly seats under the Nibong Tebal parliamentary constituency.
So far the former director of the Aminuddin Baki Institute (Northern Branch) Joohari Ariffin, 60, has been named as the candidate of the Unity Government while Nibong Tebal PAS vice president Abidin Ismail, 56, is representing Perikatan Nasional (PN).
The by-election is expected to witness fierce competition between the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (Harapan-BN) pact and PN.
This is because PKR, the party contesting to represent Harapan-BN, is on a mission to reclaim the seat it won for three terms from 2008 before it was lost to PAS in the state election last August.
Umno secretary-general Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki has said the party will mobilise its entire machinery to help Joohari win the seat.
Umno has named Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir as the elections director for BN, Penang Umno liaison chief Datuk Musa Sheikh Fadzir as the operations director, and Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan as the war room chief, Asyraf Wajdi said in a statement last night.
A total of 39,279 registered voters are eligible to vote in the by-election consisting of 39,222 ordinary voters and 57 police personnel.
The Election Commission has set July 2 as the early voting date, while July 6 is the polling day.
The by-election follows the death of the incumbent, Nor Zamri Latiff, on May 24 due to stomach inflammation.
In the Penang state election last August, the late Nor Zamri, who was also Nibong Tebal PAS president, won with a majority of 1,563 votes.
— Bernama
