SHAH ALAM, Oct 12 — PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang revealed today that the party has eight candidate choices to contest the coming Sungai Limau by-election.

With less than two weeks from nomination day, he said the party has yet to decide on which candidate to put forth for the state seat.

"We have received eight names and we are going to the ground to conduct research and surveys to identify which one of them would be accepted by the people.

"All eight are local figures, and not from the national level, they are all locals," he told reporters after officiating the seminar on implementing Syariah laws in Malaysia at the University of Selangor (UniSel).

The seat fell vacant following the death of its incumbent Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak of PAS.

Azizan was also the Menteri Besar of Kedah when PAS ruled the state for one term after the 2008 general election.

The nomination date for the by-election is set on October 23, while the polling day, on November 4.

Sungai Limau is located between Kuala Kedah, which is 15km away and Yan, another 10km away.

As of September 26, the constituency has 27,222 registered voters, including two overseas absentee voters.

It is one of the three state seats under the Jerai Parliamentary constituency with some 93 per cent Malay voters.

The other two state seats are Guar Chempedak and Gurun, the latter having some 40 per cent Chinese voters and it is an MCA seat.

This by-election is also seen as a test for Kedah’s first-term Mentri Besar, Umno's Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, to win the hearts of the mostly paddy farmers and fishermen there.