PUTRAJAYA, April 24- The Bukit Gelugor by-election will be held on May 25, Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof announced today.

The parliamentary seat was vacated after DAP lawmaker Karpal Singh was killed in a road accident in the early hours of April 17.

The nomination for candidates will take place on May 12, while early voting will kick off on May 21.

With 82,431 registered voters, Aziz said the federal constituency was “very big” and is expected to cost the EC RM1.98 million to conduct the election.

Of the total voters, 148 are early voters while 28 are overseas voters.

There are three state constituencies within the Bukit Gelugor seat — Seri Delima, Paya Terubong and Air Itam.

The late Karpal won the parliamentary seat in last year’s general election with a 41, 778-vote majority over BN’s Teh Beng Yeam who got 14, 061 votes.

DAP has yet to settle on who it will field for the contest, but speculation is rife that it will either be Ramkarpal Singh or Jagdeep Singh, both Karpal’s sons.

BN secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor last week said the coalition will most likely allow MCA to contest the seat as it has traditionally done.