CHUKAI – The Kemaman parliamentary by-election kicks off today with the nomination of candidates at Dewan Berlian of the Kemaman Municipal Council.
The nomination centre will open at 9am and potential candidates have until 10am to submit their nomination forms to the returning officer.
The Election Commission has fixed early voting for November 28 and polling day for December 2.
The 14-day campaign period for the by-election will begin today until 11.59pm on December 1.
On Monday, Barisan Nasional (BN) named former chief of Defence Forces General (Rtd) Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor, 66, as its candidate, while PAS is fielding Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar to defend the seat.
Meanwhile, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) announced that it would not field a candidate to contest the seat.
A total of 141,790 voters are expected to cast their ballots in the by-election, including 387 police personnel, nine military personnel, and 12 absent voters.
The by-election is being called after the Terengganu Election Court nullified the victory of Che Alias Hamid of PAS, who had been declared the winner of the Kemaman parliamentary seat in the 15th general election last year.
Che Alias won 65,714 votes in the four-cornered battle, defeating Datuk Seri Ahmad Said of BN (38,535 votes), Hasuni Sudin of Pakatan Harapan (8,340 votes) and Rosli Ab Ghani of Pejuang (506 votes).
Terengganu Meteorological Department director Rosli Zakaria advised those involved in the nomination process to be alert to the weather and changing environment as rain is expected in Kemaman from morning to evening. – November 18, 2023