PORT DICKSON: It’s a straight fight between Barisan Nasional and PAS in the Bagan Pinang by-election on Oct 11.
This is after former Parti Keadilan Rakyat member Shahruddin Abdul Hamid, who quit the party to contest in the polls, failed to get a proposer to enable him to stand as an independent candidate.
Barisan is fielding Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad, who was mentri besar for 22 years and a six-term assemblyman, while PAS is represented by its state commissioner Zulkefly Mohd Omar, who had previously contested the Lenggeng state seat thrice but lost.
The Bagan Pinang seat fell vacant following the death of Barisan’s Azman Mohammad Noor on Sept 4. He won the seat in the 2008 general election with a 2,333-vote majority against PAS’ Ramli Ismail.
In 2004, Barisan won the seat with a 4,411-vote majority.
Supporters from both parties made their way to the designated gathering spots as early as 7am although the candidates had one hour from 9am to file their nomination papers.
Mohd Isa, 59, who arrived at Barisan’s gathering spot outside the Port Dickson District Administrative Complex at 8.20am, was accompanied to the nomination centre at the Port Dickson Municipal Council hall some 400m away by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Also present were MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, PPP president Datuk M. Kayveas, Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and several Cabinet Ministers.
Zulkefly, a 45-year-old businessman, made his way to the nomination centre accompanied by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and several other party leaders including Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Khalid Ibrahim.
The opposition supporters gathered near the Esso station some 500m away from the Barisan camp.
Both sides had almost an equal number of supporters totalling some 10,000.
Isa was first to submit his nomination papers just after 9am. His name was proposed by N. Kandiah @ Kanniah while Kaw Yoh See seconded.
Zulkefly made his way into the nomination hall at 9.06am accompanied by proposer Sarif Kasim and seconder Baharom Bujang.
After the two filed their papers, attention moved to Shahruddin, who had in the run-up to nomination day promised voters that he would be contesting.
He even quit PKR on Friday after he was threatened with expulsion by its leaders.
Shahruddin showed up at 9.15am, accompanied by a proposer and a seconder.
He entered the nomination hall shortly after but was told by returning officer Abd Wahab Shamsuddin that his proposer was ineligible because he was not from the constituency.
When the objection period ended at 11am, Abd Wahab said the commission had received two objections but he had dismissed both. Both sides had made one objection each.
Bagan Pinang has 13,664 voters of whom 8,577 or 62.8 % are Malays, 2,834 (20.7%) Indians, 1,498 (10.9%) Chinese and 755 (5.5%) others.
No comments:
Post a Comment