PEKAN, June 30 — The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) have to date issued 117 ceramah permits from 121 applications in the Chini state by-election.

Pahang police chief Datuk Abd Jalil Hassan said four applications were not approved because the applications for ceramah would have more than 250 participants and the locations of the talk are small which may not be able to comply with the standard operating procedure (SOP) after police studied the proposed premises.

He added that there were 309 party activities held since nomination day on June 18 where Barisan Nasional (BN)’s Mohd Sharim Md Zain recorded 270 activities, the highest among the candidates.

"There were 10 activities for the Independent candidate using the key symbol (Mohd Shukri Mohd Ramli) while the Independent candidate with the house symbol (Tengku Datuk Zainul Hisham Tengku Hussin) held 29 activities,” he told a media conference after inspecting early polling at the Chini police station near here today which saw 17 of the 18 police personnel and retired policemen casting their votes.

He said candidates wishing to apply for ceramah permit could still do so by putting in their applications to PDRM on a working day.

In this regard, Abd Jalil was satisfied with the campaign which proceeded smoothly and there were no reports of SOP violation received on the activities of all candidates.

In fact, he said so far PDRM have only received two reports on Chini by-election.

The two reports were on a procession of a four-wheel drive accompanied by 15 motorcycles on nomination day last Saturday while another case was reported by an Independent candidate who received a picture in a Kuantan community WhatsApp group naming him as a PKR candidate.      

The Chini by-election is a three-cornered fight for the seat vacated by Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Harun, 60, who passed away of a heart attack on May 7.

Polling day is on Saturday, July 4. — Bernama