21 days of campaigning for Balakong by-election

PUTRAJAYA: A 21-day campaigning period has been allocated for the upcoming Balakong by-election, with polling set for Sept 8.
Making the announcement, Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Tan Sri Othman Mahmood said nomination for the by-election is set to take place on Aug 18 while early voting will be on Sept 4.
"For this by-election, the commission will be using Demesne main hall of the Hulu Langat Land/District Office as the nomination and official ballot tallying centre.
"The commission has also appointed Hulu Langar district officer Datuk Rosli Othman as the returning officer for this by-election and he will be assisted by three assistants," Othman said during a press conference for the Balakong by-election at the EC office here today.
The Balakong state seat fell vacant following the death of its assemblyman Eddie Ng Tien Chee in an accident on July 20.
This by-election is the nation's second by-election after the general election on May 9 which saw the defeat of Barisan Nasional after six decades.
Othman said that for this by-election, there will be 17 balloting centre with a total of 129 voting channels and the cost for this by-election is estimated to be RM1.5 million.
"The commission will be providing and implementing some improvements for the upcoming Balakong by-election and among it includes two special voting channels specifically for voters above 60.
"There will be a longer voting period where voters can start casting their votes voting at 8am and voting will end on 5.30pm as compared to the previous 5pm.
"We have also increase the number of voting channels from the previous 100 in the last general election to 129 channels to avoid overcrowding of voters at certain channels," Othman added.
"We hope that once these improvement are implemented, it could decrease the overcrowding at the balloting centres as well as ensure voters are comfortable fulfilling their responsibilities.
"There are a total of 62,219 registered voters comprising 62,160 ordinary voters, 31 early voters and 28 overseas voters," Othman added.