Kemaman voters go to the polls on Dec 2

PUTRAJAYA: A total of 141,790 eligible voters in Kemaman will elect their new representative in a by-election set for Dec 2.

The cost to run the by-election is estimated at RM3.5mil.

Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh said a special meeting held yesterday had set the nomination day for the Kemaman by-election on Nov 18 while early voting is on Nov 28.

The by-election is being held due to the outcome of an election petition.

“Following this, the meeting decided that a by-election is to be held to fill the vacancy in the parliamentary seat,” he said after chairing the meeting.

On Sept 26, the Terengganu Election Court annulled the victory of Che Alias Hamid, who represented PAS in the 15th General Election (GE15) last year.

Che Alias had won the Kemaman parliamentary seat in a four-cornered fight with a 27,719-vote majority.

However, Judge Datuk Anslem Charles Fernandis subsequently ruled that there were elements of corruption involved during the Kemaman polls in GE15.

Judge Fernandis said the petitioner, voter Wan Mohamad Hisham Wan Abdul Jalil, succeeded in proving that corruption had taken place with the aim of influencing voters in the polls.

Yesterday, Abdul Ghani said that there would be a campaign period of 14 days beginning from Nov 18, after the nomination process, until 11.59pm on Dec 1.

He also said that 2,102 election staff would manage the election process.

There will be 49 polling centres with 244 streams and four early polling stations with four streams.

“Voters can check their details through the EC website or via the MySPR Semak application,” he added.

Of the total number of eligible voters, 141,382 are regular voters, 387 are police personnel and spouses, nine are armed forces personnel and spouses, and 12 are overseas voters.

Since GE15 last year, the country has seen several by-elections – for the Pulai and Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seats, as well as the Simpang Jeram and Pelangai state seats.

Another by-election is set to take place for the state seat of Jepak in Sarawak, where nomination is on Oct 21, early voting on Oct 31 and polling on Nov 4.