(April 10): Voting for the Rompin parliamentary by-election will be held on May 5, two days earlier than the Permatang Pauh by-election, Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof announced today.

The Rompin by-election comes following the death of Tan Sri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis, who was killed in a helicopter crash in Semenyih on April 4.

Abdul Aziz said the nomination day has been fixed on April 22, followed by the early voting on April 30.

He said a total of 53,294 people were expected to cast their votes in the by-election and the cost is estimated at RM1.917 million.

Previously, the EC chairman had hinted the possibility of holding the Rompin by-election simultaneously with the Permatang Pauh by-election on May 7.

The Permatang Pauh seat was officially declared vacant after oppositiion leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is now serving jail term for a sodomy charge, was disqualified.

Anwar retained the seat in the general election in 2013 after defeating BN's Dr Mazlan Ismail by a 11,721-vote majority.

Meaanwhile, Jamaluddin, who was the chairman of Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA), retained the Rompin seat he had held for 23 years by beating former Wanita PAS chief Nuridah Mohd Salleh by a majority of 15,114 votes. – The Malaysian Insider