Four-cornered fight for Semenyih state seat
Vinodh Pillai
-February 16, 2019 10:40 AM
The Semenyih by-election will see a four-cornered fight between (from left): PSM’s Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul, independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng, PPBM’s Aiman Zainali and Umno’s Zakaria Hanafi.KAJANG: Four candidates will be vying for the vacant Semenyih state seat, including from Pakatan Harapan, Barisan Nasional and PSM. One is an independent candidate.
Those contesting in the four-cornered fight are PPBM’s Aiman Zainali, 30, Umno’s Zakaria Hanafi, 58, PSM’s Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul, 25, and independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng, 56, also known as the “10 sen man”.
Their names were announced by returning officer Mohd Sayuthi Bakar after the close of nominations at 10am at the Dewan Seri Cempaka today, which served as the by-election nomination centre.
Zakaria is a former Kampung Sesepan Kelubi Umno branch permanent chairman. He is now an ordinary Umno member.
Hulu Langat PPBM treasurer Aiman is the son-in-law of the late incumbent assemblyman Bakthiar Mohd Nor, and an electrical engineer.
The two local Semenyih lads are up against Nik Aziz, a traditional massage business owner, as well as philanthropist Kuan, who is a former police officer.
Campaigning will last for 14 days. Early voting has been fixed for Feb 26, while polling will take place on March 2.
A total of 54,503 registered voters, including 51 early voters and 32 absentee voters, are eligible to vote.
There will be 26 voting centres with 119 polling streams to expedite the voting process.
A total of 992 workers with the Election Commission will be on duty throughout the election period. The exercise will cost some RM1.8 million.
The by-election was triggered by the death of incumbent assemblyman Bakthiar Mohd Nor, of PPBM, from a heart attack on Jan 11. He had won a four-cornered contest in the 14th general election with an 8,964 vote majority.
In last year’s general election, Bakhtiar received 23,428 votes to defeat the BN candidate who garnered 14,464 votes, and candidates from PAS (6,966 votes) and PSM (1,293 votes).
The by-election is the sixth to be held in the country since GE14, after the by-elections for the Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia and Balakong state seats in Selangor and the Cameron Highlands and Port Dickson parliamentary seats in Pahang and Negeri Sembilan.
The Semenyih state constituency is part of the Hulu Langat parliamentary constituency.
