March 17 – Bintulu Division PKR’s secretary Abdul Jalil Bujang has been named as Pakatan candidate for Balingian by-election, a state assembly seat vacated by former Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud since becoming the governor of the state.
The nominations will take place today and voting is scheduled to take place on March 29, 2014.
Abdul Jalil, who hails from Mukah, was a former Petronas executive. He is now a businessman in Bintulu and an activist.
BN Candidate Yussibnosh was a former district officer of Dalat.
The by-election is the first one in Sarawak since the GE 13. It will put Pakatan to test to prove that they still command support from the people of Sarawak ahead of the next state assembly elections scheduled in 2016.
However, political analysts predict it will be an uphill task for PKR to win the seat given Taib’s immense political influence in the constituency over the years.
In the last election, PKR’s candidate Suriati Abdullah managed to get 871 votes against Taib, who secured 6,210 votes in a three-cornered fight. The other candidate was Salleh Jafaruddin who stood as an Independent. He obtained 1,056 votes.
There are 13,366 voters, 67.3 percent of the electorate are Malay/Melanau, while Iban voters constitute 19.02 percent and Chinese 13.65 percent.
