TANAH RATA: The process of nomination for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election started at 9am yesterday at the Gemilang hall of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Sultan Ahmad Shah here.
Candidates vying for the seat were given an hour up to 10am to submit their nomination forms at the nomination centre before the returning officer Datuk Ishak Md Nais announced the names of the contestants at about 11am.
Pahang Election Commission director Datuk Zamree Hamli said that as at 5 pm on Friday, 11 sets of nomination forms had been purchased, with three sets each by Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN), and independents and two sets by the People’s Progressive Party (MyPPP).
PH announced DAP Pahang deputy chairman M. Manogaran as its candidate while BN is fielding Ramli Mohd Nor, a retired senior police officer and a local from the Orang Asli community.
The by-election is being held after the Election Court declared BN candidate Datuk C. Sivarraajh’s victory in the 14th General Election (GE14) null and void due to corrupt practices to influence 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 vote-counting on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/sprgovmy/.- Bernama
