Permatang Pauh by-election: Suhaimi Sabudin named BN candidate

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Suhaimi Sabudin (pic), 44, has been named the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election.

The Permatang Pauh Umno division secretary's candidacy was announced here by Barisan Nasional deputy chairman and Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Thursday.

The Permatang Pauh seat was declared vacant when its incumbent Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was disqualified as a Member of Parliament and the Pardons Board rejected a petition for a royal pardon sought by his family over his conviction for sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Anwar, who is PKR adviser, had won the seat by a majority of 11,721 votes in the May 2013 general election.

He polled 37,090 votes while Mazlan Ismail of Barisan Nasional polled 25,369 votes. Independent candidate Abdullah Zawawi Samsudin got just 201 votes.

The Election Commission has set May 7 as the polling day for the by-election and May 3 for early voting. Nomination Day is this Saturday.

PKR is expected to announce its candidate on Friday night.

The EC has said that the 2013 voters’ list would be used together with the latest list of newly registered voters. The list comprises 71,890 voters, of whom 71,252 are voters, 627 early voters and 11 postal voters. The nomination process and official vote tallying would be held at the Bukit Mertajam National Youth Skills Institute hall.