SEMENYIH, Feb 16 — The Semenyih by-election is a four-cornered fight featuring incumbent Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN), Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and one independent, where two candidates are aged 30 and below.
All four candidates arrived to file their nomination papers after nomination began at 9am in Dewan Seri Cempaka, Saujana Impian here today.
Returning officer Datuk Mohd Sayuthi Bakar then announced at 10.25am that none of the four nomination papers were rejected.
PH, who won the Selangor state seat in the 14th general election last May under the PKR symbol, has named 30-year-old Muhammad Aiman Zainali from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) as their candidate.
BN is banking on 58-year-old local leader Zakaria Hanafi from Umno, while PSM is fielding 25-year-old Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Community Policing Association president Kuan Chee Heng who is also known as ‘Uncle Kentang’, is contesting as an independent candidate.
According to the Election Commission, Aiman was the first to file his nomination papers at 9.03am followed by BN’s Zakaria at 9.05am.
The remaining candidates, PSM’s candidate Nik Aziz Afiq and independent candidate Kuan filed their nomination papers simultaneously at 9.10am.
The by-election has been necessitated by the death of the incumbent assemblyman, Bakhtiar Mohd Nor of PPBM of a heart attack on January 11.
The seat is a Malay-majority seat — 69 per cent of the total 54,503 voters followed by Chinese at 17 per cent and Indians 14 per cent.
In last year’s general election, Bakhtiar obtained 23,428 votes to defeat BN’s Datuk Johan Abd Aziz (14,464); Mad Shahmidur Mat Kosim of PAS (6,966); and PSM’s S. Arutchelvan (1,293).
Early voting will take place on February 26 and voting will take place on March 2.
