KUALA LUMPUR: Polling day for the Chini by-election has been set for July 4 after the Pahang state seat fell vacant following the death of its incumbent Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Harun, last week.
Election Commission (EC) chairman Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun, in announcing this today, also set nomination day for the by-election to be held on June 20, which gives candidates a two-week campaign period.
Early voting has been set for June 30.
Azhar said the commission will ensure each process in the by-election during the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) will be in full compliance with guidelines issued by the Health Ministry (MoH) to curb the spread of Covid-19.
At this time, he said, the standard operating procedures (SOPs) will be scrutinised by MoH and subsequently finalised.
Among the precautional measures proposed by the EC were to limit a maximum of 400 people from 600 previously at each lane and adding information in the voter's card to be sent to registered voters.
This additional information will be in the form of a time advisory known as "Encouraged Time to Go Out to Vote".
He said the information can also be viewed on the EC's official web portal.
Azhar said voters were encouraged to go out to vote during specific periods of time to observe social distancing measures as well as to reduce congestion at polling centres.
"For the by-election to be carried out, the EC held discussions with the National Security Council, National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), MoH and the police on the special SOPs during the CMCO period which is currently in force," he said in a statement.
Azhar said the EC had agreed to set up a by-election enforcement taskforce to monitor campaign activities throughout the official campaign period.
The taskforce will comprise the police, enforcement officers of local authorities and the candidates' representatives.
The EC will be utilising the Dewan Utama Institut Kemahiran Belia Negara (IKBN), Pekan as the candidate nomination centre and official counting centre.
"To facilitate the nomination process, the EC urges potential candidates who wish to contest in the N.23 Chini by-election to fill in and review the nomination form earlier with the Returning Officer's (RO) office or the Pahang Election Commision office prior to nomination day.
"Apart from that, candidates are encouraged to make the deposit payment online, which should be done in advance to ensure the nomination process could be settled earlier and run smoothly," he said.
Azhar said the processes involved in the by-election will be broadcast on Facebook live through the EC's Facebook page as usual.
He said a total of 832 personnel have been appointed to conduct the Chini by-election, while 14 polling centres comprising 66 voting streams will be used to facilitate the voting process.
He added that the Chini by-election would require an allocation of about RM4.3 million.
The commission would also use the 2019 main electoral roll, which was updated on May 7 this year, for this by-election.
Based on this electoral roll, the Chini state seat comprises 20,990 registered voters. Out of that total, 20,972 were regular voters and 18 were police personnel from the early voters category.
He said voters could check details on the electoral roll and polling centres at www.spr.gov.my, hotline at 03-8827018, via SMS at 15888 or via the MySPR Semak app beginning June 3.
The EC is targetting a 70 per cent voter turnout and encourages voters to go out to vote.
Azhar said the EC was continually improving the voting process by providing streams for 60 year-old voters and above.
It would also extend the voting time by 30 minutes, which meant that polling would be from 8am to 5.30pm instead of finishing at 5pm.
He said the EC would be adding 20 new streams to avoid overcrowding, while allocating the first voting stream for persons with disabilities.
"For this by-election, we have identified 289 people with disabilities who are registered with the Welfare Department."
Az
har said postal voting applications for those in Malaysia and those overseas can be done from May 15 to June 18.
The Chini state seat fell vacant after Abu Bakar, 60, from Barisan Nasional, died at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital of a heart attack on May 6.
In GE14 in May 2018, Abu Bakar polled 10,027 votes to win the seat with a 4,622-vote majority against Pas' candidate Mohd Fadhil Noor Abdul Karim who obtained 5,405 votes and Mohamad Razali Ithnain of PKR (1,065 votes).