‘EC will be notified of Semenyih state seat falling vacant’

KLANG: Selangor Speaker Ng Suee Lim says he will be notifying the Election Commission (EC) that the Semenyih state assembly seat has fallen vacant next week.

“I will first have to receive certification of the late assemblyman’s demise from his family members before I can inform the EC,” said Ng, adding that he was waiting for the relevant documentation before writing to the EC.

The seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent assemblyman Bakhtiar Mohd Nor, 57, who is from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

Once a copy of Bakhtiar’s death certificate is submitted to the Speaker’s office, the EC will be immediately notified, he added.

Selangor Bersatu chief Datuk Abdul Rashid Asari said the party would only look at the seat vacancy after a week.

“We are not doing anything at the moment out of respect for Bakhtiar. Once the week is over, we will meet our state Pakatan Harapan partner parties to discuss potential new candidates,” said Abdul Rashid.

He added that once the component parties arrive at an agreement on the new candidate, the person’s name would be submitted to Pakatan’s top leadership.

Meanwhile, Selangor Barisan Nasional is confident that it has a better chance in the upcoming Semenyih state assembly seat by-election.

Its deputy chief Datuk Mat Nadzari Ahmad Dahlan said the current political climate will work in favour of Barisan.

“We now have very close ties with PAS and therefore their support will also come to us in the by-election,’’ said Mat Nadzari, adding that there was a need for a stronger opposition in the Selangor state legislative assembly.

Currently, Barisan has only four and PAS one seat in the 56-seat state legislative assembly.

Mat Nadzari said Barisan had learnt much from the outcome of the last general election and currently has a better understanding on how better to serve the people.

On the candidate selection, Mat Nadzari said there was already a second generation of young, capable and highly eligible leaders in Barisan waiting in line to move into leadership positions.

Bakhtiar, who is the Hulu Langat Bersatu division chief, won the Semenyih seat in last year’s general election with a majority of 8,964 votes. He obtained 23,428 votes.

He had defeated the incumbent assemblyman, Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Johan Abdul Aziz, as well as candidates from PAS and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).

We are not doing anything at the moment out of respect for Bakhtiar.

Datuk Abdul Rashid Asari