The Election Commission (EC) has fixed Saturday, Aug 4, for the Sungai Kandis state seat by-election in Selangor.
At a press conference this afternoon, deputy EC chief Othman Mahmood announced that candidates would have to file their nominations on July 21, at the Dewan Besar Tanjung in Shah Alam.
There will be a 14-day campaign period - beginning on nomination day until 11.59pm on Aug 3.
“For postal voting locally and abroad, applications will be open on July 9 (today) and close on July 21,” Othman added.
The seat fell vacant following the death of PKR incumbent Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei on July 2.
This will be the first by-election following the May 9 general election, which the late Shuhaimi (photo) won with a 12,480-vote majority in a four-cornered fight with BN (Umno), PAS and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM).
PKR has yet to announce its candidate for the seat while PAS has said it would contest only in a straight fight.
More streams, longer hours
Othman said that several improvements in the conduct of elections have been decided upon following public feedback on the 14th general election.
These included additional voting streams and extending voting hours by 30 minutes.
“Twenty-one new voting streams will be set up to prevent having too many voters in one stream. In total, there will be 109 streams, up from 88 streams in GE14.
“The EC will also extend voting hours from 8am to 5.30pm from 5pm previously,” he said.
Elderly voters above the age of 60 will be accorded two voting streams.
NGOs will be allowed to observe
As for the electoral roll, Othman said the EC’s roll from the first quarter of 2018 will be used.
The by-election is estimated to cost RM1.4 million in public funds.
Othman also announced that unlike GE14, NGOs would be allowed to apply to be observers in the by-election.
“For this by-election, the EC will offer any NGO, or anybody, interested to observe the by-election - from nomination day until when the election results are announced.
“They will be allowed to observe the nomination centre, polling centre, the vote counting centre and official vote tallying centre,” he said.
Applications must be made to the EC by next Monday (July 16). - Mkini
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