Chini by-election: Over 600 police personnel to ensure smooth polling

More than 600 police officers and personnel will be on duty to ensure smooth voting process in the Chini state by-election this Saturday.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Mohamed Said said that all of them had been given training to ensure smooth voting process which involved new normal practices and the implementation of standard operating procedure (SOP) as the COVID-19 threat was still present.

He said the Pekan district police headquarters (IPD) have categorised the by-election tasks into four phases, namely, the nomination day; campaign period; polling day and vote-tallying process; and result announcement.

"Throughout the campaign period we have deployed over 400 policemen, while on the polling day we will station over 600 personnel to help ensure SOP compliance," he told reporters.

He said this after a Ziarah Kasih visit to three 'asnaf' houses in Felda Chini 2 near here today.

Ismail said the Chini state by-election task meeting which involved police, Ministry of Health (MOH), local authority and the Election Commission (EC), to focus, among others, on the aspects of SOP compliance, traffic and public safety.

The media practitioners involved were also briefed on the polling day news coverage guidelines, he said.

The Chini state seat by-election will see a three-cornered contest between Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Mohd Sharim Md Zain, 41, and two independent candidates, Tengku Datuk Zainul Hisham Tengku Hussin, 64, and Mohd Shukri Mohd Ramli, 49.

It was necessitated by the death of the incumbent, Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Harun, 60, on May 7 due to a heart attack.

There are 20,990 registered voters for the Chini state by-election and it will be the first by-election to be held after the Movement Control Order came into force on March 18.

-- BERNAMA