Seri Setia by-election on Sept 8, same date as Balakong’s

PUTRAJAYA: The by- election for the Seri Setia state seat is to be held simultaneously with that for Balakong, with the nomination on Aug 18, early voting on Sept 4 and polling on Sept 8.

Election Commission ( EC) deputy chairman Tan Sri Othman Mahmood, who made the announcement yesterday, said the EC had taken into account various aspects such as location, logistics and security before arriving at the decision.

“The campaign period is 21 days, from the date of nomination up to 11.59 pm on Sept 7,” he said at a press conference after the EC special meeting on the by- election.

The last time two by- elections were held simultaneously were for the Sungai Besar ( Selangor) and Kuala Kangsar ( Perak) parliamentary seats, on June 18, 2016.

Othman said Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain has been appointed as the returning officer for the Seri Setia by- election and that the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre would be used as the nomination centre and vote-tallying centre.

He said 895 workers would be engaged in the by- election and 18 premises would be used as the polling stations with 115 polling streams.

“A total of RM1.59 million is needed to conduct the byelection,” he said.

The by- election has been necessitated by the death of the Pakatan Harapan assemblyman, Prof Dr Shaharuddin Badaruddin of PKR, of colon cancer on Aug 2.

In the general election on May 9, Shaharuddin won the seat with a 19,372-vote majority, beating three challengers Datuk Yusoff HM Hanif of Barisan Nasional ( BN), Mohd Ghazali Daud of PAS and independent candidate Dr S. Vignes.

Othman said the electoral rolls to be used for the by- election were up to the first quarter of 2018 and updated as of Aug 2 with 53,492 registered voters. Some 50,692 were ordinary voters, 2,770 early voters and 30 absentee voters.

He said the number of polling streams had been increased by 24 from the 91 streams provided during the general election in May.

The number of polling booths at each polling station had also been increased from two to three to expedite the voting process, he added.

He also said that two special streams for voters aged 60 and above would be provided, besides extending the polling period by 30 minutes to make it from 8am to 5.30pm.