Johor's Tanjung Piai by-election set for Nov 16, nomination on Nov 2

The Tanjung Piai seat fell vacant after its incumbent Md Farid Md Rafik died on Sept 21 at Pontian Hospital due to a heart attack. PHOTO: DR MD FARID MD RAFIK / FACEBOOK

PUTRAJAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The by-election for Johor's Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat will be held on Nov 16.

Malaysia's Election Commission (EC) also announced that nomination day would fall on Nov 2 while early voting is on Nov 12.

The announcement was made by EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun on Tuesday (Oct 1).

He said the EC was informed of the vacancy of the seat by Parliament on Sept 23.

"According to the law, a by-election must be held within 60 days of the vacancy," he told the media after a meeting to determine the key dates for the by-election.

There are 52,986 voters in the parliamentary constituency, of which 280 are early voters while eight are absentee voters.

The ward is located in south-west Johor on the edge of the Strait of Malacca, and is about an hour away by car from the Iskandar Puteri township (formerly Nusajaya) in Johor where Legoland is located.

Datuk Azhar said the by-election is expected to cost RM2.67million (S$880,000).

The Tanjung Piai seat fell vacant after its incumbent Md Farid Md Rafik, who was also Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, died on Sept 21 at Pontian Hospital due to a heart attack.

Datuk Md Farid, 42, who was also Tanjung Piai's Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) division vice-chief, won the seat in the last general election after beating Barisan Nasional's (BN) Wee Jeck Seng and Parti Islam SeMalaysia's (PAS) Nordin Othman with a majority of 524 votes.

With the recent formal agreement by BN and PAS to work closely together, PH could expect a stiff fight for the seat.

PAS is set to give the Tanjung Piai seat for Umno-led BN to contest in the by-election. Though a traditional seat for the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) - one of the three BN parties - some Umno leaders are keen to contest instead.

Talk is rife that Umno may field its vice-president Khaled Nordin, the former Johor chief minister, to focus more attention on the vote.

Johor had been a stronghold for BN in the past, and even when MCA found the going tough elsewhere in the past decade, their leaders have previously been elected here on the back of strong Malay support.

But Johor swung heavily towards PH in the May 2018 polls, with no other state seeing a bigger drop in BN MPs. BN won only eight out of 26 federal districts in Johor, a massive reduction of 13 seats from the previous poll in 2013.

Responding to the nomination and voting dates set by the EC, MCA president Wee Ka Siong said these coincided with the MCA and Umno annual assemblies.

"The MCA annual general meeting has been scheduled for Nov 2 to 3 whereas the Umno AGM has been scheduled for Nov 13 to 16 this year.

"Is this a coincidence? Many are asking why the EC made such a late decision," he said on Facebook on Tuesday.

Datuk Seri Wee, who is MCA's sole MP, added that the chances of such important by-election dates coinciding with the AGMs of two parties were too slim for it to be a coincidence.

"From a mathematical point of view, this is a question of probability. Calculate the probability that the Tanjung Piai by-election would coincide with both annual general meetings of MCA and Umno. The answer is 0.00000001! Looks like MCA and Umno have to step up to face this new challenge," he said.

Said Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa: "This is being done to disadvantage Umno. Indirectly, the EC is seen to be helping Pakatan Harapan - especially Bersatu (PPBM) - to retain the Tanjung Piai seat."

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.