It’s a three-way contest in Sungai Besar

(Bernama) – Barisan Nasional, PAS and Parti Amanah Negara will contest the Sungai Besar parliamentary by-election.

The candidates are Budiman Mohd Zohdi (BN), Dr Abdul Rani Osman (PAS) and Azhar Abdul Shukur (Amanah). They filed their nomination papers this morning.

Budiman is state assemblyman for Sungai Panjang.

He was accompanied by Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a procession to the nomination centre, marching with a group of supporters from Dataran Tonggak 10, about 500 metres away.

MCA president Liow Tiong Lai, BN Sungai Besar by-election director Noh Omar and BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor were among them.

The PAS candidate, Dr Abdul Rani, is the state assemblyman for Meru. He was accompanied to the centre by Selangor PAS commissioner Iskandar Abdul Samad and PAS election director Mustafa Ali.

Azhar of Amanah was accompanied by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali, DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang and Amanah leaders led by president Mohamad Sabu.

The by-election was brought about by the death of the MP, Noriah Kasnon, in a helicopter crash in Sarawak on May 5. She had been elected to Parliament in 2013 with a majority of 399 votes against the PAS candidate, Mohamed Salleh M. Hussin.

Sungai Besar has 42,655 registered voters, of whom 286 are early voters and four absentee voters who are abroad.

Polling will be held on June 18.