Manek Urai vote on July 14

PUTRAJAYA— Polling for the Manek Urai by-election is set for July 14 while nomination day falls on July 6, Election Commission Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof announced today.

The election was called following the death of five-term Kelantan state lawmaker Ismail Yaacob last Friday.

Ismail, who was recently elected the Kuala Krai PAS deputy chief, first won the seat in 1986. In last year’s general election, he defeated Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Zulkepli Omar by 1,352 votes.

Ismail did not contest the 2004 election when Zulkepli won by 53 votes.

Manek Urai, which is about a two-hour drive from Kota Baru, comprises an electorate that is almost exclusively Malay, with other races making up less than one per cent of the 12,292 voters.

A largely forested area, Manek Urai is one of the four state seats in the Kuala Krai parliamentary constituency. The other three are Mengkebang, Guchil and Dabong.

The last by-election in Kelantan was held in 2005 for the Pengkalan Pasir state constituency, which saw BN wresting the seat from PAS. (TMI)