The Malaysian Insight

THE Election Commission today set August 4 for the by-election for the Sungai Kandis state seat, which was left vacant after its incumbent assemblyman, Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei, died of lymphoma cancer last Monday.

The state seat comes under the Kota Raja parliamentary seat.

The announcement was made by EC deputy chairman Othman Mahmood at a press conference at its headquarters today, after a special meeting to discuss the matter that lasted almost three hours.

Othman said the EC had also set July 21 as the nomination date and 14 days for the campaigning period.

He said a few adjustments would be made to the by-election operations, such as increased channels.

“We have decided to increase the number of channels to 109, instead of 88 as in the 14th general election, and will set polling time to be from 8am to 5.30pm,” he said.

The Sungai Kandis by-election will cost about RM1.4 million to run.

Pakatan Harapan chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in a press conference held after the presidential council meeting in Putrajaya on Friday that the coalition’s candidate for Sungai Kandis will come from PKR.

He said the PH presidential council had discussed the matter and agreed that the candidate should come from PKR.

However, a candidate has not been selected yet, Dr Mahathir, who is also the prime minister, said after the presidential council meeting.

Mat Suhaimi, who died on July 2, had served two terms as Sri Muda assemblyman before winning the Sungai Kandis seat in GE14 with 23,998 votes in a four-cornered fight.

He was the political secretary to then Selangor menteri besar Mohamad Azmin Ali.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said he had already asked Selangor PKR to shortlist candidates for the by-election.

Islamist party PAS said it would only contest if it was a straight fight.

PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said this was because PAS had only recorded a mediocre performance in the state constituency during GE14 in May.

“If other opposition parties, such as Barisan Nasional, are not contesting, PAS is most likely to field its candidate for a straight fight.

“However, if there is a three-cornered fight, then PAS’ candidacy will be reconsidered because we want to avoid vote splitting, which will only bring about results similar to GE14,” Takiyuddin said. – July 9, 2018.