Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KAJANG (March 1): The campaign by contesting parties in the Semenyih state by-election has been smooth sailing so far, said Election Commission (EC) chairman Azhar Azizan Harun.

He said generally the campaign in Semenyih had been more positive as compared to the campaign for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat, as less complaints were received..

"Only few complaints were raised compared to the Cameron Highlands by-election. Throughout the campaign period so far, we only received police reports and none from the MACC.

"As you are aware In Cameron Highlands we had all sorts of complaints such as giving out of money to voters and abuse of government assets...but not over here,” he told a press conference after checking on the ballot boxes at the official vote counting centre at Seri Cempaka Hall, Kajang Municipal Council in Saujana Impian here today.

He also lauded the move by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Mohamaddin Ketapi to withdraw the RM80,000 allocation which he had earlier announced was for the upgrading of Dewan Haji Md Silin multipurpose hall in Beranang.

"I consider this a good move and to the EC this is a great development," he said.

Earlier, the media reported that Mohamaddin withdrew the allocation after he realised that this contravenes the Election Offences Act as the announcement was made ahead of the Semenyih by-election.

Commenting on EC's preparation for polling day tomorrow, Azhar said the technical preparations were going on smoothly and the ballot boxes and indelible ink for use tomorrow have been checked.

"A total of 996 election workers will be on duty at 24 polling centres and 116 streams and we are all set to go," he said.

Azhar also reminded voters and candidates to comply with all the rules which have been set when at the voting centres including to ensure that they do not wear clothes bearing logos, names, symbols of any party or candidate.

However, he said it was alright to wear clothes with wordings such as 'my boss' and 'maluapabossku' .

A total of 53,411 ordinary voters are eligible to vote in the by-election which was called following the death of incumbent assemblyman Bakhtiar Mohd Nor, from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), due to a heart attack last Jan 11.

Earlier, 676 out of 951 early voters involving police personnel and their spouses cast their votes on Feb 26.

The Semenyih by-election will witness a four-cornered contest among Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Muhammad Aiman Zainali, Zakaria Hanafi of Barisan Nasional (BN), Independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng and Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).
 

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