A by-election will be held for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat on Jan 26, 2019, the Election Commission (EC) announced today.
EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said the nomination will be held on Jan 12 and early voting on Jan 22.
Overseas voting is open for registration from Dec 19 and will be closed on Jan 11.
“The campaign period is 14 days, from nomination day to 11.59 pm on Jan 25, 2019,” Azhar told a press conference after chairing a meeting on the by-election.
He said the electoral rolls verified up to the third quarter of 2018 will be used for the by-election. The constituency has 32,009 registered voters, comprising 31,750 ordinary voters, 247 early voters and 12 absentee voters.
“The EC targets a voter turnout of 70 per cent for the by-election,” he said.
He added that 811 people had been appointed to conduct the Cameron Highlands by-election and 31 polling centres with 88 voting channels will be used.
For the first time, results of the by-election would be broadcast live to the public on the EC’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
In GE14, MIC’s C Sivarraajh had won the Cameron Highlands seat with 10,307 votes while DAP’s M Manogaran polled 9,710 votes. The other candidates were PAS’ Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud (3,587), PSM’s B Suresh Kumar (680) and Berjasa’s Mohd Tahir Kassim (81).
On Nov 30, the Election Court revoked Sivarraajh’s victory after it found that money was used during campaigning to buy votes.
Sivaraajh, who is also MIC vice-president, said he will not challenge the election court’s decision, and that the Barisan Nasional (BN) opted to fight for the cause of the people in a by-election rather than going to the Federal Court.