Corrected 1.30pm on 28 May 2009
Updated 3.33pm on 28 May 2009
PUTRAJAYA, 28 May 2009: The Manik Urai by-election will be held on 14 July 2009, the Election Commission announced today.
Nomination day will be on 6 July.
Its chairperson, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, said that the 2008 Master Electoral Roll, which incorporated the Supplementary Electoral Roll for the first quarter of this year and had been updated until 22 May, would be used for the by-election.
According to the electoral roll, Manik Urai has 12,293 registered voters, comprising 12,268 normal voters and 25 postal voters.
He told a press conference at the commission office here today that the EC was informed of the vacancy of the Manik Urai seat by the Kelantan state assembly speaker on 24 May.
Abdul Aziz said the Dewan Petra of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Yahya Petra 1, Kuala Krai, would serve as the nomination center and the main vote-tallying centre for the Manik Urai by-election.
A total of nine schools will be used as polling centres voting centres, with 27 polling streams, and 350 election workers will be involved in the by-election, he added.
He said the electoral roll for the by-election would be available for sale on 15 June and that voters could also check whether their names were in the electoral roll through the EC website at www.spr.gov.my, the short messaging service at 15888 and the EC headquarters in Putrajaya at 03-88856500 or its Kelantan office at 09-7482510.
Abdul Aziz said the EC would form two enforcement teams to monitor campaign activities during the by-election and ensure that they strictly adhered to the stipulated regulations.
The state seat in Kelantan fell vacant following the death of assemblyperson Ismail Yaacob on 22 May of a heart attack. He was 60.
Ismail was one of the longest-serving PAS elected representatives in Kelantan who was also deputy head of the Kuala Krai PAS division. (Corrected) He won the Manik Urai state seat in the general election in 1986 and was the elected representative there for five terms.
He did not contest the seat in the 2004 general election but contested the seat again in the 2008 general election and defeated Mohamed Zulkifli Omar of Barisan Nasional (BN) with a majority of 1,352 votes.
Manik Urai is one of the four state seats in the Kuala Krai parliamentary constituency. The other three are Dabung, Guchil and Mengkembang.
PAS, helmed in Kelantan by Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, retained Kelantan in the general election last year by winning 38 seats. The BN won six seats and Parti Keadilan Rakyat, one.
Apart from PAS and BN which are expected to contest the seat, Angkatan Keadilan Insan Malaysia has also indicated interest in contesting. — Bernama
