A by-election was held for the Kedah State Assembly seat of

Bukit Selambau Bukit Selambau is a small town in Kuala Muda District, Kedah, Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states ...

on 7 April 2009 following the nomination day on 30 March 2009. The by-election was held on the same day as the Batang Ai state seat by-election and the Bukit Gantang federal seat by-election.

Background

The seat was vacated after the incumbent assemblyman and State EXCO, V. Arumugam resigned of both his positions on 9 February 2009. Arumugam was an assemblyman from the

Parti Keadilan Rakyat The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a reformist political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party. The ...

(PKR), a component party of

Pakatan Rakyat The People's Alliance ( ms, Pakatan Rakyat; abbrev: PR) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP ...

. He won the seat, then as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, by a majority of 2,362 votes against

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 se ...

(BN) candidate, S. Krishnan in the

2008 Kedah state election The 12th Kedah state election was held on 8 March 2008. Polling took place in 36 constituencies throughout the Malaysian state of Kedah, with each electing a State Assemblyman to the Kedah State Legislative Assembly. The election was conducted by ...

. He later joined PKR after his victory, and were the party's state deputy chairman and Merbok PKR deputy chief at the time of his resignation as an MLA. Arumugam has alleged that his resignation were the result of harassment towards him and his family to leave PKR by BN, an allegation that were refuted by BN.

Candidates

S. Manikumar of PKR has been nominated as Pakatan Rakyat candidate in the by-election. BN, which forms the opposition in the Kedah Assembly, named S. Ganesan from MIC as their candidate. 13 other independent candidates were registered on nomination day, making this election one on the most number of candidates contesting ever recorded in Malaysia election history (15).

Results

The by-election was won by Manikumar from PKR with a majority of 2,403 votes.

References

{{Malaysian by-elections Politics of Kedah 2009 elections in Malaysia 2019 Bukit Selambau by-election Elections in Kedah