PD POLLS | All Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) personnel are prohibited from engaging themselves in any political activity during the Port Dickson by-election, its chief Zulkifli Zainal Abidin said.

In fact, he said the ATM personnel must also adhere to the principle of being apolitical, which means that they should not take sides or favour any political party.

“Political campaigns are also not allowed in military camps as well as all ATM premises,” he said in a statement today.

Zulkifli said the ban was not just for the Port Dickson by-election, but would apply to all elections in the future.

The Port Dickson by-election is seeing a seven-cornered fight between Pakatan Harapan  candidate Anwar Ibrahim, PAS’ candidate Mohd Nazari Mokhtar and five independent candidates, namely the former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Mohd Isa Abdul Samad, Anwar's former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, former private university lecturer Lau Seck Yan, social media personality Stevie Chan Keng Leong and management consultant Kan Chee Yuen.

The parliamentary seat was vacated by Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, 68, on Sept 12, to pave the way for Anwar to contest and return to Parliament.

In the 14th general election on May 9, Danyal  won the seat with a majority of 17,710 votes defeating BN's VS Mogan and Mahfuz Roslan from PAS.

The Election Commission had set Oct 13 as polling day and tomorrow for early voting.

- Bernama