Five-cornered contest for Tioman state seat
ROMPIN: The contest for the Tioman state seat in the 15th General Election (GE15) will witness a five-cornered fight among Barisan Nasional (BN), Perikatan Nasional (PN), Pakatan Harapan (PH), Pejuang and an Independent candidate.
PN is fielding Nor Idayu Hashim, the only woman candidate for the seat, while the BN candidate is Datuk Seri Mohd Johari Hussain, who is the incumbent.
The other contenders are Osman A. Bakar (Pejuang), Mohd Fadzli Mohd Ramly (PH) and Sulaiman Bakar (Independent).
Returning Officer Datuk Ahmad Nasim Mohd Sidek announced the candidates at 10.50am after the nomination process at Dewan Jubli Perak Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah closed at 10am.
“We received a new nomination paper from a candidate today (Thursday), while candidates whose nominations had been confirmed on Nov 5 did not need to send their nomination papers today,” he said.
Only Nor Idayu was present yesterday to submit her nomination paper while the other candidates, except PH, were present to draw lots for their new position on the ballot paper.
PH candidate Mohd Fadzli was represented by his representative Manan Mohamad.
It is learned that Mohd Fadzli was in the federal capital.
The fine weather at the nomination centre allowed hundreds of PN and BN supporters to gather outside the perimeter fence as a sign of support for their respective candidates, while the other three candidates did not bring their supporters.
Polling for the Tioman state seat for GE15 was postponed following the death of Md Yunus Ramli, who was named the PN candidate for the seat, on the polling day.
The Election Commission (EC) has set Dec 7 as the polling day and Dec 3 for early voting.
The electoral roll to be used for Tioman contains a total of 28,465 voters consisting of 28,200 ordinary voters, 262 police personnel and three absentee voters.
In the 14th general election, Mohd Johari won with a majority of 1,280 votes, defeating Md Yunus who secured 5,382 votes, PKR candidate Sazili Mohd Nor (3,029 votes), while Independent candidate Imam Zul lost his deposit after getting only 58 votes.