Sg Limau polls: 142 less voters now

YAN: The electorate for the Sungai Limau state seat has been reduced by 142 people as they had died since the 13th General Election in May.

Election Commission (EC) secretary Abdul Ghani Salleh said the deaths were reported after the EC updated the electoral rolls.

“As such the total number of voters for the Nov 4 by-election is 27,222, as compared to 27,364 during the general election,” he told a news conference at Dewan Dato’ Madi here yesterday.

He said 93 per cent or 25,323 voters were Malays, Chinese (1,842), Indians (15) and the rest comprising other races.

“There are two postal voters. EC has only received one form and we will wait for the other form,” he said.

Abdul Ghani said 58 polling streams and 17 polling centres would be set up for the Sungai Limau by-election on Nov 4.

Apart from that, the EC would also be setting up three Election Campaign Enforcement teams (PP-KPR), in line with the provision of Section 27B of the Election Offences Act 1954 to monitor campaign activities, he said.

Last night both PAS and Umno had named their candidates for the by-election.

PAS had named Jerai PAS Youth chief Mohd Azam Samat, 37, the director of Pusat Asuhan Tunas Islam Kedah, as its candidate while Barisan Nasional picked lecturer Dr Ahmad Sohaimi Lazim.

Ahmad Sohaimi, 52, who is a lecturer at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) is from Titi Batu here.

The Sungai Limau state seat fell vacant following the death of Azizan Abdul Razak, the former Kedah Menteri Besar, on Sept 26. The Election Commission has fixed tomorrow for nomination.

Sungai Limau is a PAS stronghold, held by the party for the last five terms. The outcome of the by-election would not alter the state composition as BN holds a favourable lead in the state assembly after taking over the state in the last general election.