Monday 17 August 2009

Permatang Pasir: It's a straight fight between BN and PAS

It will be a straight fight in the Permatang Pasirby-election on Aug 25 - between Rohaizat Othman (pic. right)from Barisan Nasional (BN) and Mohd Salleh Man Aji from Pas.

A third candidate, motivational expert Kamarul Ramizi Idris, 42, tried to file his papers as an Independent but was too late.

He said traffic congestion had slowed him from getting to the nomination centre at Dewan Perdana, National Youth Skills Institute in Jalan Berapit here on time.

Fifteen objections were raised against the two candidates but the objections were rejected and the returning officer Roslan Yahaya announced the candidates after nominations closed at 11am.

Rohaizat, 38 is the Permatang Pauh Umno division secretary and is a relative new comer.

The businessman from Mengkuang Titi has a law degree from the International Islamic University and is actively involved in social work in Penanti and Permatang Pauh.

Salleh Man,52 is the Penang PAS commissioner and has represented PAS six times in the general elections since 1986 but lost every time. He is from Kepala Batas.

The Permatang Pasir seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent Datuk Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman of PAS of heart ailment on July 31.

Mohd Hamdan, who had held the seat for three terms since 1999, garnered 11,004 votes to defeat Ahmad Sahar Shuib of the BN with a 5,433vote majority in the general election last year.

Permatang Pasir has 20,290 registered voters 72.34 percent Malays, 25.86 percent Chinese, 1.64 Indians and 0.16 percent, others.

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