PUTRAJAYA: The by-election for the P.078 Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat will be held on Jan 26, 2019
This was announced by the Election Commission (EC) Chairman Azhar Azizan Harun (pix) today at its headquarters in Putrajaya.
Nomination day for the by-election will be on Jan 12, 2019 , and early polling will be on Jan 22. There will be a 14-day campaigning period.
Azhar said a total of 32,009 voters will be eligible to vote in the by-election, according to the electoral roll recorded until the third quarter of 2018 which was updated last November.
“The preliminary voting day is set on Jan. 22 with a 14-day campaign period,“ he said.
Azhar said Cameron Highlands district officer Datuk Ishak Md Napis will be the returning officer for the by-election which is estimated to cost RM3.5 million.
He said the EC will use the Cameron Highlands District and Land Office operations room as the nomination centre and the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Silver Jubilee Hall as the vote-tallying centre.
A total of 811 workers have been appointed to conduct the by-election, he said.
A total of 31 polling stations with 88 polling streams will be made available on polling day, he added.
The Cameron Highlands by-election is the fifth by-election after the 14th general election (GE14). The first by-election was for the Sungai Kandis state seat (on Aug 4); the second and third for the Balakong and Seri Setia state seats (Sept 8) and the fourth for the Port Dickson parliamentary seat (Oct 13).
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof on Monday confirmed that the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat was vacant, setting the wheels in motion for a by-election.
On Nov 30, the Election Court revoked C Sivarraajh’s victory in the May 9 general election after it found that money was used during campaigning to buy votes.
Sivaraajh, who is also MIC vice-president, said he will not challenge the election court’s decision, and that the Barisan Nasional (BN) opted to fight for the cause of the people in a by-election rather than going to the Federal Court.
In GE14, Sivarraajh had won the Cameron Highlands seat with 10,307 votes while DAP’s Manogaran polled 9,710 votes, PAS’ Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud (3,587), PSM’s B Suresh Kumar (680)and Berjasa candidate Mohd Tahir Kassim (81).
