Penanti poll likely to see four-cornered contest

PENANG, May 22,2009 — malaysianinsider — Bernama

The by-election in the Penanti state constituency, nomination for which is tomorrow, is likely to see a four-cornered contest, with a candidate from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and three independents.

Nomination will take place at the Dewan Perdana of the National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) in Penanti. Polling is on May 31.

PKR has named Mansor Othman, 56, the Penang PKR deputy chairman, as its candidate. The independent candidates are likely to be businessman Mohd Saberi Othman, 49, former Penang Parti Keadilan Nasional (KeAdilan) Wanita chief Aminah Abdullah, 56, and manufacturing company manager Nai Khan Ari, 41.

Mansor contested the Pulau Betong state seat in the general election last year, but lost to Muhamad Farid Saad of the Barisan Nasional (BN).

Nai, who has collected a nomination form, is expected to announce his candidacy today.

The by-election is being held following the resignation of incumbent assemblyman and former Deputy Chief Minister I Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin to pursue post-graduate studies.

The excitement of a by-election seems to be lacking as the BN is skipping this contest because it feels it is not an election provided for by the constitution and that it came about owing to a PKR internal problem.

Penanti has 15,384 voters, with 72.68 per cent of them Malays, 24.22 per cent Chinese, 2.39 per cent Indians and 0.71 per cent of other communities.