Penang police assure all 13 nomination centres safe

BUKIT MERTAJAM - Penang Police has assured that all 13 nomination centres in the state meet the safety and comfort requirements for the nomination process on Saturday, as well as for tallying of votes for the 15th General Election (GE15) later.

Penang police chief Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said he had personally inspected all the nomination centres today to ensure that police have complied with the standards of the Election Commission (EC) for these locations.

"In Penang there are 13 parliamentary (constituencies) and a total of 13 nomination centres have been readied throughout the state, so today I visited and inspected all of them to see the preparations ahead of the nomination this Saturday, (and) we also established good cooperation with the EC.

"So far the selection of the venues for nomination has safety and comfort requirements in place and for vote-tallying on Nov 19. There are no issues.

"If there are any, I will give orders to district police chiefs (for issues that arise) to be streamlined before Nov 5, but so far all police officers are aware and have adhered to EC's requirements,” he said after an inspection here today at the land and district office hall for the Bukit Mertajam Parliamentary constituency at Seberang Perai Tengah district (SPT).

The other two nomination centres in SPT are at National Youth Higher Skills Institute (IKTBN) (for Permatang Pauh Parliamentary seat) in Bukit Mertajam and the Seberang Perai Vocational College (Batu Kawan Parliamentary seat) while to serve the Seberang Perai Selatan district only, the Jawi multipurpose hall is for the Nibong Tebal Parliamentary seat.

For the Seberang Perai Utara district (SPU), the nomination centres are Dewan Datuk Haji Ahmad Badawi (Bagan Parliamentary seat), the Kepala Batas Industrial Training Institute (Kepala Batas Parliamentary seat) and the SPU Mara Skills Institute (Tasek Gelugor Parliamentary seat).

For the Timur Laut district, there are four nomination centres which are the Compassionate Community Complex (Bukit Bendera Parliamentary seat), Dewan Seri Pinang (Tanjong Parliamentary seat), SMK Penang Free High School (Jelutong Parliamentary seat) and SMK Chung Hwa Confucian (Bukit Gelugor Parliamentary seat).

Barat Baya district involves two nomination centres which are at SMK Sungai Ara (Bayan Baru Parliamentary seat) and Balik Pulau Polytechnic (Balik Pulau Parliamentary seat).

Meanwhile, Mohd Shuhaily said police urged representatives and candidates for GE15 to obey the law and avoid provocations to ensure the nomination process runs smoothly.

"All parties, especially party supporters, need to know that the entire GE15 process has been planned with high emphasis on transparency and that is why all candidates must be loyal to the election process so that results will not be in doubt," he said. - BERNAMA