Bukit Gelugor polls on May 25, nomination May 12

EC sets May 12 as nomination day for the parliament seat by-election which was vacated for the death of Karpal Singh.

UPDATED

PUTRAJAYA: The Election Commission (EC) today fixed May 25 as polling day for the Bukit Gelugor parliamentary seat by-election, while nomination for the contest would be on May 12. Early polling is set for May 21.

In announcing this today, EC chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the dates were decided following a meeting at the EC headquarters this morning.

Aziz Yusof said Dewan Sri Pinang will be used as the nomination centre and as the counting centre.

A total of 21 polling centres will be opened for voting purposes, of which 17 to be used during the normal voting day while four voting centres are set for early voters. The voting centres are all in schools.

The Bukit Gelugor parliament seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent parliamentarian Karpal Singh of DAP on April 17 in a car accident near Kampar, Perak.

Karpal won by a majority of 41,778 votes against Barisan Nasional candidate Teh Beng Yeam in the 2013 general election.

According to EC data in 2013, P51 Bukit Gelugor comprise of 14.48 percent or 11,880 Malay voters, 61,112 or 74.49 percent Chinese voters, 8,660 or 10.56 Indian voters and 0.48 per cent or 390 other race voters.

Almost RM2 million allocated

Aziz Yusof also said the EC would be spending RM1,979,480 million for this by-election, with 1,095 EC staff deployed.

For this by-election, one returning officer and five assistant returning officers have been appointed to oversee the election process.

Penang Water Department director Capt (Ret) Anuar Yahya has been named as the returning officer.

“The reason for choosing May 25 is to avoid time conflict with PKR party assembly, Workers’ and Wesak day public holidays.

“Not only that, from May 19 to 23, Penang will be hosting its state assembly meeting,” said Aziz Yusof in explaining the reason for picking May 25 as the polling date.

DAP is expected to finalise its candidate during a party meeting early next week. The frontrunner is either Ramkarpal or his sister, Sangeet Kaur, both Karpal’s children.