THE Seri Setia by-election on September 8 will see a straight fight between Dr Halimah Ali of Islamist party PAS and Pakatan Harapan’s Halimey Abu Bakar.

At 11am today, Election Commission returning officer Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain announced that only two candidates had filed their nomination papers.

Dr Halimah said she is running in the Malay-majority state constituency to ensure that the new government does not fall into complacency.

“If you don’t provide checks and balances now, they will become complacent.

“Stand by me, and I will stand up in the Dewan for you.”

She said PAS’ support for Umno is purely to strengthen the opposition.

“We want the opposition to be strong, and that’s why we are not going against Umno.”

PH’s Halimey, of PKR, said he hopes the party will retain Seri Setia.

He said he had worked alongside late assemblyman Shaharuddin Badaruddin, who died of cancer on August 2.

“I am a local candidate and have experience in managing this zone.”

In the 14th general election, Shaharuddin won the seat with a 19,372-vote majority, getting a total of 29,250 votes in a four-cornered fight against Barisan Nasional’s Yusoff M. Haniff, Mohd Ghazali Daud (PAS) and Vigneswaran Subramaniam (independent).

Seri Setia has 52,650 eligible voters, comprising 55% Malays, Chinese (20%), Indians (24%) and others (2%). Its by-election will be held simultaneously with the Balakong polls. – August 18, 2018.