Each party or individual intending to contest will be given one hour from 9am to submit their nomination papers, before their names are verified and announced as candidates by the Election Commission’s returning officer.

A total of 579 officers and personnel from the Kelantan police contingent will be deployed to ensure the smooth running of the nomination process.

According to the meteorological department website, the weather is expected to be clear in the morning during the nomination process.

The EC has set the polling day for Aug 17, with a 14-day campaign period from today until 11.59pm on Aug 16.

However, the early voting day originally scheduled for Aug 13 will not be held, after all 14 eligible voters opted for postal voting.

So far, Barisan Nasional (BN) has named Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani, 38, the Kelantan Umno Youth chief as its candidate to represent the unity government, while Perikatan Nasional (PN) announced Bersatu’s Rizwadi Ismail, 41, a former navy personnel as their candidate.

The Nenggiri state by-election is being held following the vacancy announcement by Kelantan state assembly speaker Amar Nik Abdullah on June 19. He made the declaration after receiving a notice from Bersatu that former assemblyman Azizi Abu Naim had ceased to be a member of the party on June 13.

According to the election roll, as of June 18, there are a total of 20,259 eligible voters in the by-election, comprising 20,245 ordinary voters and 14 police officers.

BN won the Nenggiri seat for four consecutive elections since 2004 before losing it to PN in last year’s state polls, when Azizi defeated Umno’s Ab Aziz Yussof with a majority of 810 votes.

This is the ninth by-election following the 15th general election in November 2022, with the eight previous ones being for five state seats (Simpang Jeram, Johor; Jepak, Sarawak; Pelangai, Pahang; Kuala Kubu Baharu, Selangor; and Sg Bakap, Penang) and three parliamentary seats (Kuala Terengganu and Kemaman, Terengganu; and Pulai, Johor).