KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — The Sungai Bakap state by-election will be a straight fight between Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Joohari Ariffin and Perikatan National (PN) candidate Abidin Ismail.

The announcement was made by the Election Commission (EC) returning officer Khairulnizam Hashim after nominations at the Dewan Serbaguna Jawi, Taman Desa Jawi in Penang closed at 10am today.

"We have received two nomination forms for today. We are satisfied with it and none of them were rejected.

"The Sungai Bakap by-election will be contested by PH candidate Cikgu Joohari and PN candidate Abang Abidin,” he said.

News coverage showed Johari, dressed in a sky blue baju Melayu to match PKR’s hue, reached the nomination centre at 8.47am, accompanied by his party secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Barisan Nasional deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan, DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng and several other unity government coalition leaders.

His political rival, PAS candidate Abidin, dressed in a darker shade of blue reflecting his coalition colour, arrived at the nomination centre three minutes later with about 1,000 supporters.

PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang and his deputy Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man were also present to show support for their candidate.

The EC has set July 6 as polling day for the Sungai Bakap by-election while early voting will be on July 2.

The by-election was called following the death of the state assemblyman, Nor Zamri Mohd Nor, on May 24 due to stomach inflammation.

In the state election last year, Nor Zamri, who was Nibong Tebal PAS vice-chief, beat PH candidate Nurhidayah Che Ros by a majority of 1,563 votes.