No by-election for Batang Kali state seat

There will be no by-election for the Batang Kali state seat in Selangor, the Election Commission (EC) announced today.

EC secretary Ikmalrudin Ishak said they had received a letter of notification from Selangor state assembly speaker Ng Suee Lim yesterday regarding the matter after the seat was declared vacant in accordance with Article LXIX of the Selangor Constitution 1959.

He said based on Part Two, Chapter 5 Article LXX (5) of the Selangor Constitution 1959, the state assembly speaker had notified the EC that there was no need for the unexpected vacancy to be filled.

"Therefore, there will be no by-election for the N07 Batang Kali seat in Selangor," he said in a statement.

On Feb 16, Ng announced the Batang Kali seat vacant effective Jan 28 after its assemblyman Harumaini Omar failed to attend state assembly sittings for more than six months.

Ng said Harumaini was found to have been absent without permission from the speaker throughout the sittings from Nov 23 to 30, 2022, Dec 1 to 2, 2022 and Dec 5 to 6, 2022.

He said there were no records in the Selangor state assembly office or speaker’s office to show that the Pejuang assemblyman had applied for permission from the speaker to be absent from the assembly during that period.