39,222 voters elect a new representative tomorrow in the Sungai Bakap by-election

NIBONG TEBAL: Registered voters for the Sungai Bakap State Assembly By-Election (PRK) will fulfill their responsibility to elect their representatives tomorrow after the end of the 14-day campaigning period.

According to Bernama, the Sungai Bakap state assembly by-election saw a one-on-one clash between Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Dr Joohari Ariffin and Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Abidin Ismail, which was held following the death of incumbent Nor Zamri Latiff on May 24 due to stomach inflammation.

Sungai Bakap is one of the three DUNs under the Nibong Tebal Parliament.

Based on the statistics of the Election Commission (SPR), a total of 39,222 people out of 39,279 registered voters are eligible to vote while 57 people consisting of police personnel have voted by post which saw no early voting centers open for the by-election even though the date was set on July 2.

Of the total number of registered voters, the majority of voters are those aged 21 to 29 years, which is 9,598 people, followed by 8,187 people (30 to 39 years old), 6,928 people (40 to 49 years old), 5,656 people (50 to 59 years old) , 3,610 people (60 to 69 years old), 3,134 people (18 to 20 years old), 1,658 people (70 to 79 years old) and 508 people (80 years old and above).

For the two competing candidates, only Abidin will vote tomorrow at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Duri since Joohari is a voter in the Sungai Acheh State Assembly, also under the Nibong Tebal Parliament.

For the voting process which starts from 8am to 6pm tomorrow, a total of nine polling stations involving 65 channels will be opened before the vote tallying process takes place at the Jawi Multipurpose Hall, Taman Desa Jawi here.

In this by-election, a total of 552 EC officers were mobilized to help launch the voting process while the police deployed more than 600 members to maintain security and traffic control.

The Sungai Bakap state seat was won by Nor Zamri, who is also PAS President Nibong Tebal in the Penang State Election last August, defeating PH candidate Nurhidayah Che Rose with a majority of 1,563 votes.

This is the eighth by-election after the 15th General Election which previously saw the Kuala Terengganu (Terengganu) Parliamentary by-election; Simpang Jeram state assembly by-election and Pulai (Johor) parliamentary by-election; Pelangai (Pahang) state assembly by-election; Jepak (Sarawak) state assembly by-election; Kemaman Parliamentary by-election (Terengganu) and Kuala Kubu Baharu (Selangor) State Assembly by-election.

The Department of Meteorology Malaysia (MetMalaysia) through its website predicts rain tomorrow in the morning but in the afternoon the weather will return to good with temperatures ranging from 26 to 33 degrees Celsius.