Four-cornered fight in Cameron by-election

TANAH RATA: The Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election will be a fourcornered contest among Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN) and two independent candidates.

PH has fielded Pahang DAP deputy chairman M. Manogaran, BN has signed up retired senior police officer Datuk Mohd Ramli Nor and the two independents are a former lecturer at the Aminuddin Baki Institute, Sallehudin Ab Talib, 61, and farmer Wong Seng Yee, 40.

Returning officer Datuk Ishak Md Napis announced their names about an hour after the nomination closed at 10 am at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Ahmad Shah.

MyPPP president Tan Sri M. Kayveas, who had stated his intention to contest the byelection, told reporters outside the nomination centre at 9.30 am that he had changed his mind and would now support Manogaran.

The by-election is being held after the Election Court, on Nov 30, annulled the victory of Datuk C. Sivarraajh of the BN in the 14th general election (GE14) due to corrupt practices that had influenced the voters.

In GE14, Sivarraajh won the seat in a five-cornered fight after garnering 10,307 votes, edging Manogaran who secured 9,710 votes; Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud of PAS (3,587 votes); Mohd Tahir Kassim of Berjasa (81 votes) and B. Suresh Kumar of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) (680 votes).

The EC has set Jan 13 as the date for the issuance of postal votes, Jan 22 for early voting, Jan 25 for ballot box inspection and Jan 26 for polling.

For the first time, the EC will provide a live crossover on the nomination, polling and votecounting on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/sprgovmy/.

The Cameron Highlands parliamentary constituency has within it two state constituencies, namely Tanah Rata and Jelai. It has a total of 32,009 voters, including 247 early voters, 12 absentee voters and 385 disabled voters.

The by-election is the fifth to be held in the country since GE14, after the by-elections for the Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia and Balakong state seats in Selangor and the Port Dickson parliamentary seat in Negeri Sembilan.