KUALA LUMPUR, 7 April 2009: Voting in the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat and the Bukit Selambau and Batang Ai state seat by-elections began simultaneously today when polling centres opened at 8am.
In Bukit Gantang, Perak, Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Ismail Saffian faces embattled Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin from PAS and independent candidate Kamarul Ramizu Idris.
The contest in Bukit Selambau, Kedah has created history with 15 candidates contesting, including BN’s Datuk S Ganesan from the MIC, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)’s S Manikumar and 13 independent candidates.
The Batang Ai by-election in Sarawak is seeing a straight contest between BN’s Malcolm Mussen Lamoh and PKR’s Jawah Gerang.
The Bukit Gantang constituency has 55,562 registered voters, the majority of whom are Malay Malaysians followed by Chinese and Indian Malaysians.
Bukit Selambau has 35,140 voters, with Malay Malaysians forming slightly more than half, followed by Indian and Chinese Malaysians.
The remote Batang Ai constituency has 8,006 voters, the large majority of whom are Ibans.
The by-elections in Bukit Gantang and Batang Ai are being held following the death of the incumbents, Roslan Shaharum (PAS) in Bukit Gantang and Datuk Dublin Unting Inkot (BN) in Batang Ai. In Bukit Selambau the by-election was necessitated by the resignation of its assemblyperson V Arumugam (PKR).
All polling centres are scheduled to close at 5pm and the results expected to be known by 8.30pm at the earliest. — Bernama
