Cameron Highlands By Election Fixed For Jan 26

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The Cameron Highlands by-election will be held on Jan 26 next year with a 14-day campaign period, Election Commission chairperson Azhar Azizan Harun announced today
Nomination day will be Jan 12. Both polling and nomination days fall on Saturday
Early voting will be held on Jan 22 while postal voting will be from Dec 19 to Jan 11Azhar said that the Cameron Highlands District and Land Office will be used as the nomination centre while the Dewan Jubli Perak Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah will be used as the vote-tallying centre
As per the recent few by-elections, voting will be from 8am to 5:30pm
However, Azhar said that voting at certain rural voting centres will be cut short, to between 1pm to 4pm. Cameron Highlands has a high number of Orang Asal voters
“We have to use a helicopter to bring in the ballot papers, thus we need to close the centres earlier to ensure that vote counting and the announcement of results will be done smoothly,” he explained. He estimated the by-election to cost RM3.5 million in public funds
As for election observers, Azhar (photo) said they will be able to scrutinise all processes from nomination to polling
They will be allowed access into the nomination centre, polling centre, vote counting centre and vote-tallying centre. “Any parties interested to become observers for this by-election can submit their applications to the EC. The closing date for applications is Dec 31, 2018,” he said. EC checking on Sivarraajh's eligibilityThe Cameron Highlands by-election was triggered after no appeal was filed against the Election Court's decision to nullify BN's parliamentary seat win in the 14th general election.

The Election Court had on Nov 30 declared the Cameron Highlands seat vacant after determining that corrupt practices had led to incumbent MP C Sivarraajh’s win in the 14th general election (GE14)
Asked if the MIC politician would qualify to stand for the upcoming by-election, Azhar said the EC will announce its stance on the matter after seeking legal counsel
“The EC is scrutinising the report for the Election Court about whether he (Sivarraajh) qualifies
“...After getting legal advice, we will announce our position on that
“We will have a decision on it before nomination day,” Azhar added
Sivarraajh, who is MIC vice president, has been shortlisted as one of the party’s candidates for the by-election
In GE14, Sivarraajh had won the seat in a five-cornered fight with 10,307 votes, a slim 597 votes more than DAP’s 9,710 votes.In that election, PAS garnered 3,587 votes, PSM, 680 votes and Berjasa, 81 votes. - Mkini

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