700 police personnel to be on duty during Chini by-election

PEKAN, June 20 — Some 700 police officers and personnel will be on duty to monitor the Chini state seat by-election which is scheduled on July 4.

Pahang police chief Datuk Abdul Jalil Hassan said the situation throughout Chini state constituency during the nomination process today was peaceful and under control.

“‘Alhamdulillah’ (praise be to Allah), nomination process went smoothly and peacefully,” he told reporters after the nomination process at the Pekan National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) here today.

He also explained that today, a total of 399 police officers and personnel had been stationed as early as 6 am to maintain security and managing the traffic movement around the Pekan IKBN.

In addition, he said 15 teams that would include personnel from the Election Commission (EC), would be also monitoring the campaigns to be carried out by the candidates.

He said among things that would be monitored were house-to-house campaign that should only involve three persons, while the ‘ceramah’ (political talks) could only be attended by a maximum of 250 people, following the implementation of the Recovery movement control order (RMCO) to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I would like to advise all parties to comply with the standard operating prodecures (SOPs) set by the EC to avoid action taken against them,” he said.

Abd Jalil said the police would discuss with the EC on the permission to hold indoor ‘ceramah’ as people who gathered in an indoor arena would be more exposed to the Covid-19 transmission.

“As of now, the ‘ceramah’ are allowed until midnight, however, this matter will also be discussed with the EC,” he said.

Meanwhile, the EC has issued the new guidelines for the Chini by-election, to prevent the emergence of a new ‘by-election’ cluster, as the country is currently doing well in battling the Covid-19 transmission.

Meanwhile, the Chini by-election on July 4 will be a three-cornered fight between Barisan Nasional’s candidate Mohd Sharim Md Zain, 41, and two independent candidates, Mohd Shukri Mohd Ramli, 49, and Tengku Datuk Zainul Hisham Tengku Hussin, 64.

The seat is vacant following the death of Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Harun, 60, from a heart attack on May 6.

In the previous 14th general election (GE14), Abu Bakar defended the Chini state seat with a majority of 4,622 votes after securing 10,027 votes, while PAS candidate Mohd Fadhil Noor Abdul Karim received 5,405 dan Mohamad Razali Ithnain (PKR) obtained 1,065 votes. — Bernama