EC: Permatang Pauh by-election to be held on May 7

PUTRAJAYA: The by-election for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat will be held on May 7 while nomination day will be on April 25, the Election Commission announced today.
EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof also announced that early voting will be on May 3, and the closing dates for application of postal votes within Malaysia is April 27 and for those residing outside Malaysia, April 25.
The 2013 voters' list combined with the additional third quarter 2014 voters' list will be used for the by-election, he told reporters.
There are 71,890 voters who will be eligible to cast their votes, of whom 71,252 are normal voters, 627 advance voters and 11 postal voters.
Aziz said the electoral register will be made available on April 18.
The Dewan Perdana, National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) in Bukit Mertajam will be the nomination and vote tallying centre. There will be 26 voting stations, for which 25 schools will be used to provide 132 polling stations.
Aziz said Seberang Perai Tengah district officer Tuan Jusni Ismail has been appointed as the returning officer.
The EC would have six election enforcement teams and would consider appointing local observers from NGO's if there was a need to do so, he added. The by-election is estimated to cost RM1.9million.
The parliamentary seat, which was held by PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, was declared vacant on April 1 by Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia after Anwar's petition for a royal pardon over his sodomy conviction by the Federal Court was rejected.
Aziz also said there was a possibility that the by-election for the Rompin parliamentary seat in Pahang could be held simultaneously with the Permatang Pauh by-election.
"We will have to wait until this Friday for the announcement," he added.
The seat fell vacant after incumbent Tan Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis died in a fatal helicopter crash that killed five other people last Saturday.