PUTRAJAYA (March 6): The by-election for the state seat of Rantau in Negeri Sembilan is on April 13.

The nomination is on March 30.

This was announced today by Election Commission (EC) chairman Azhar Azizan Harun.

He said early voting would be on April 9.

“The campaign period is 14 days, from after nomination to 11:59 pm on April 12, 2019,” he told a press conference after chairing a meeting on the by-election, here.

Azhar said the EC would use the electoral rolls updated as of Feb 25 and that the rolls would be available for purchase from March 14.

According to the rolls, the Rantau constituency has 20,926 registered voters, comprising 20,804 ordinary voters, 118 early voters and four absentee voters who are abroad.

Azhar said the EC had appointed Seremban district officer Mohd Nizam Tajul Arus as the returning officer and 515 people as election workers.

The EC would use the multipurpose hall of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (C) Bandar Sri Sendayan as the nomination centre and the vote-tallying centre, he said.

He also said that 16 polling stations would be made available, with 55 polling streams, 11 streams more than previously to facilitate the voting process.

The Rantau by-election has been necessitated by the Federal Court dismissal of an appeal filed by UMNO deputy president and former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan to set aside the Nov 16 Seremban Election Court decision declaring his unopposed victory in the 14th general election (GE14) as null and void.

In GE14, Mohamad was declared the winner of the seat after his potential Pakatan Harapan (PH) opponent, Dr S. Streram of PKR, was prohibited from entering the nomination centre to submit his nomination papers because he did not have a pass issued by the EC.

Azhar said that like in the case of the Cameron Highlands parliamentary and Semenyih state by-elections, the EC would broadcast the Rantau by-election polling live on its Facebook page, including the unofficial result.

He said the EC anticipated a 70 per cent voter turnout for the by-election.

“It is estimated that it will cost RM1.8 million to conduct this by-election,” he said.

The Rantau by-election is the seventh since GE14, the others being for the Sungai Kandis state seat (on Aug 4 last year); Balakong and Seri Setia state seats (Sept 8 last year); Port Dickson parliamentary seat (Oct 13 last year); Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat (Jan 26) and Semenyih state seat (March 2).

Azhar said it cost the EC RM15.348 million to conduct all the seven by-elections.