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| It's BN vs PAS for Permatang Pasir |
| Written by Regina William | |||
| Monday, 17 August 2009 14:25 | |||
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At the close of nomination at the Institut Kemahiran Belia Negara (IKBN) in Berapit, Election Commission (EC) secretary Datuk Ngah Senik announced the candidacy of PAS candidate Mohd Salleh Man, 52, and BN's Rohaizat Othman, 38. Rohaizat graduated with a law degree from the International Islamic University while Salleh is Penang PAS commissioner, a full time politician and Islamic Studies graduate from Universiti Malaya. It would have been a three-way fight but surprisingly, independent Kamarul Ramizu Idris, 42, who contested the Bukit Gantang and Penanti by-elections and ended up losing his deposits, did not file his nomination papers. While Kamarul, who arrived at 9.50am and went in to submit his nomination papers at 9.55am, claimed he was too late to do so, Ngah Senik said he did not file his nomination papers even though he had his proposer and seconder with him. The EC secretary said it appeared as though Kamarul was fooling around and deliberately did not file his nomination papers when nomination period ended at 10am. Fifteen objections were raised, 13 by PAS and two by the BN and all were related to the job status of both candidates. The nomination process went smoothly except for a scuffle which ended with Parti Keadilan Rakyat's (PKR) Padang Serai parliamentarian N Gobalakrishnan getting arrested outside the nomination centre. Penang CPO Datuk Ayub Yaakob said Gobalakrishnan was arrested after he refused to adhere to police instructions. "He was using a loud hailer and trying to incite the other camp with provocative words, and was told to stop. He did once but later started it again. "The officers then arrested him, which resulted in him and another police officer being injured. The whole nomination process went on smoothly except for this incident," Ayub said, adding that Gobalakrishnan had also been arrested during polling day for the Permatang Pauh by-election held on Aug 26 last year. Both were sent to the hospital for treatment and Gobalakrishnan is being detained under Section 186 of the Penal Code for obstructing a civil servant from carrying out his duties. Except for this incident, there were no other untoward incidences as supporters from both camps were well behaved in their respective areas. Unlike the nomination day for last year's Permatang Pauh, which saw huge crowds running into tens of thousands, this time around, the combined crowd swell was less than 8,000. The first to arrive at the nomination centre at 8.30am was Salleh, accompanied by PAS Deputy President Nasaruddin Isa and Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. Other Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders who showed up later were PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng and PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and PAS spiritual leader Datuk Seri Nik Aziz Nik Mat. BN's Rohaizat arrived at nomination centre accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, MIC President Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu, Gerakan President Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai at 8.48am. Rohaizat was the first to file his papers at 9.03am while Salleh filed at 9.06am. The state seat is one of three seats in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency and the sole PAS state seat in Penang which was won by the late Datuk Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman for three terms since 1999. The remote Permatang Pasir lies within the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency, which has been Anwar and his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail's stronghold since 1982, while in BN and in PKR. Prior to 1999, the seat had been held by BN, but fell to PAS during the 1999 general election after Anwar was sacked from office in 1998. This is the third by-election in the Permatang Pauh constituency and the eighth since the March 8 2008 general election. In the last general election, Mohd Hamdan secured 11,004 votes to defeat BN’s Ahmad Sahar Shuib by a 5,433-vote majority. The Permatang Pasir constituency has 20,290 voters, including one postal voter, comprising Malay (72.36%), Chinese (25.85%), Indian (1.63%) and others (0.16%).
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