Permatang Pasir: Rohaizat is BN candidate

Barisan Nasional has named Permatang Pauh Umno secretary Rohaizat Othman as its candidate for the Permatang Pasir by-election, the Star reports.

Deputy Prime Minister and Barisan deputy chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin named the lawyer as its candidate on Friday.

This will be the eighth by-election since last year’s general election. The seat fell vacant following the death of its assemblyman Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman of PAS on July 31. Nomination has been fixed for Aug 17 with polling on Aug 25.

Permatang Pasir is one of three seats in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency, and was the sole PAS state seat in Penang.

In the March 2008 general election, Mohd Hamdan secured 11,004 votes to defeat Barisan’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%).

It is learnt that PAS, which will announce its candidate at about 10pm Friday, has narrowed its choice to state PAS commissioner Mohd Salleh Man or popular grassroots leader Mohammad Sabu.

The by-election may see a three-cornered fight as motivational speaker Kamarul Ramizu Idris, 42, told a press conference that he is interested in standing as an independent.