Hulu Selangor votes on April 25

By Debra Chong (Malaysian Insider)
KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Nomination day for the Hulu Selangor by-election has been set for April 17, while polling will take place on April 25, Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof announced today.
The EC also announced that the electoral roll to be used has been updated to March 26, with a total of 64,500 registered voters on the books. Of this, 2,561 were newly registered while 1,343 were voters who had changed addresses since Election 2008.
Hulu Selangor district officer Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan has been placed in charge of the operations for the polling process
The by-election was called following the death of PKR MP Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad, who suffered from brain tumour.
In Election 2008, Zainal Abidin, who was formerly a Selangor deputy mentri besar, defeated Barisan Nasional’s Datuk G. Palanivel by 198 votes.
MIC has nominated Palanivel to contest in the by-election, and the party is likely to retain the allocation despite rumblings from Umno Selangor for the seat to be given to the Malay party. It is understood that BN will “honour” the arrangements from the previous election.
Rumours have it that three MIC members would stand as independent candidates if indeed Palanivel is nominated, in moves to spoil the party’s chances out of spite for president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and his deputy.
Pakatan Rakyat, meanwhile, will be represented by PKR once more, and there has been a race within the party to contest the seat, with 10 names reportedly already in the hat.
Among the names being touted are Youth chief Shamsul Iskanda Mohd Akin; Kelana Jaya division chief, Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud, who is also MTUC president; Sabak Bernam division chief Badrul Amin Bahron; lawyer N. Surendran; and supreme council member Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.