Favourite, DAP’s Ramkarpal Singh Deo will face three others in the battle to earn the right to become the next Bukit Gelugor parliamentarian.
The by-election returning officer Anwar Yahya announced the contestants after nomination closed at 10am in Dewan Sri Pinang here today.
Ramkarpal, 38, will face main challenge from Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) vice-president Huan Cheng Guan, 53.
Independent candidates are Nabi Bux Mohamed Nabi Abd Sathar, 63, and lawyer Abu Backer Sidek Mohamad Zan.
The by-election is being held following the death of incumbent MP Karpal Singh in a highway accident near Kampar, Perak on April 17.
Polling is on Sunday, May 25. Early polling is on Wednesday, May 21.
Bukit Gelugor candidate Lawyer Ramkarpal is Karpal’s third son.
He arrived at the nomination centre at about 9am and filed his nomination papers at 9.13am.
He was accompanied by a large, noisy campaign entourage including top Pakatan Rakyat leaders and family members.
Huan arrived at the nomination centre before nine with his smaller group of PCM supporters. He filed his papers at 9am.
Nabi filed his papers at 9.02 while Backer filed at 9.41am.
With the surprised withdrawal of rival MCA from the contest, Huan is being expected to be the DAP’s main challenger this time.
But Ramkarpal is expected to sail through easily in this Chinese-dominant seat.
Observers said the question now was only the margin of his imminent victory.
Ramkarpal Singh_Bukit GelugorIn the last general election, Karpal retained the seat with a stunning majority of 41,778 votes against Barisan Nasional candidate Teh Beng Yeam.
Ramkarpal is confident that he can even better his father’s majority.
BN backers are now expected to rally for Huan to at least erode Ramkarpal’s majority.
Dewan Sri Pinang will also be used as the counting centre. Returning officer Anwar will be assisted by five officers to oversee the election process.
A total of 21 polling centres will be opened for voting purposes, of which 17 to be used during the normal voting day while four voting centres are set for early voters.
FMT
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