Permatang Pasir state assemblyperson Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman from PAS has passed away at the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur from heart failure at about 6.30am.

NONE Mohd Hamdan, 60, had been an elected representative of Permatang Pasir for three terms since 1999. He was also a former state PAS chief for 14 years.

His remains are expected to be brought to his home in Permatang Pasir from Kuala Lumpur at about 2pm and later buried at the Permatang Pasir Muslim cemetery after evening prayers.

He leaves behind wife Siti Khariah Ismail and six children.

With the seat vacant, the Election Commission will have to call for another by-election within 60 days - the eight of such polls since March 2008 general election.

Permatang Pasir, which is one of three state seats in PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim’s Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency, is the sole PAS seat in Penang.

NONE In the last general election Mohd Hamdan, who bagged 11,004 votes, defeated Ahmad Sahar Shuib from Umno (5,571) by a majority of 5,433 votes.

His younger brother Mohd Shukran told Bernama that Mohd Hamdan was admitted at the IJN after complaining of chest pains.

The PAS representative had undergone a heart surgery a few years ago, added Mohd Shukran.

NONE Top Pakatan Rakyat leaders attended Mohd Hamdan's funeral this afternoon at his house, which is next to the constituency's service centre.

He was buried at about 5pm in a cemetery located about 200 metres away.

Among the crowd of 500 who were part of the funeral entourage included Pakatan leader Anwar, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abu Bakar.

Former language teacher

Mohd Hamdan was born in Kedah and had just three weeks ago received ‘Datukship' from the Penang government.

He was a former language teacher at the Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid, Kedah and had serviced the Kedah state government as an administrative officer from 1966 to 1977.

NONE He went on to join the Customs Department in 1977 and remained there until 1983.

Only two months ago, Penanti - a state seat next to Permatang Pasir - had a by-election following the resignation of then PKR state representative Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin.

The by-election, which was won by PKR's Dr Mansor Othman, saw one of the lowest voter turnout when rival Umno opted not to contest the polls.

NONE The upcoming by-election will be the third by-election in the Permatang Puah constituency in less than one year - the first being Anwar's victory in August last year after his wife, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, quit the seat.

The other state seat in Permatang Puah, Seberang Jaya, is held by Arif Shah Omar Shah from Umno - the man who was defeated by Anwar in the by-election for the parliamentary seat.

State Umno ready to contest

Penang Umno chief and party vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi meanwhile told reporters that the [arty was ready to face the by-election in Permatang Pasir.

NONE He said the party will mobilise its election machinery soon for that purpose.

Ahmad Zahid was also confident that Umno could win the seat from PAS.

In a related development, the Election Commission said that it would be announcing the nomination and polling dates by Aug 10 the latest.

EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said he will wait for an official letter from the Penang state assembly speaker before convening a meeting.

"We could receive the letter by Monday the earliest and after that we will be holding a meeting to determine the nomination and polling dates," he said.

In fixing the by-election date, the commission will have to consider that Muslim fasting month is set to begin on Aug 22.

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