Understanding P014N25 - Bukit Selambau State Seat, Kedah

Where is the P014 N25 state seat Bukit Selambau? What do the maps look like? How many postal and non-postal voters are there now? How have voters there voted?

Foothill rubber plantations

Bukit Selambau (N25 ) is one of two state assembly seats under the Merbok parliamentary seat (P014) in southern Kedah. Bukit Selambau is located east of the coastal highway No.1, and east of the old rail road and two golf courses. It is is northeast of Sungai Petani, hence has a couple of industrial areas to its south. See Wikimapia.org map of highways.

Bukit Selambau is centered on a low hill east of Gunung Jerai and west of middle-section of Sungai Muda (where it runs north-south), which itself skirts the west of the Malaysian-Thai border mountain range.

Bukit Selambau's slopes and proximity to railroad and its northwest-peninsula's drier seasons historically made it a rubber plantation area with large ethnic Indian descendant population of rubber plantation labourer. This background is reflected in many locality names, and the non-specific voter addresses without house numbers, an issue we will discuss in later blog entries. See WikiMapia.org satellite + highway map hybrid.

The two maps on the right show the state assembly and parliamentary seats in Kedah state. Source is http://undi.info.


Table A below shows that:

• N25 Bukit Selambau is a state-assembly-level (DUN) constituency, as opposed to the other parliamentary seat of Bukit Gantang in Perak (with 3 DUNs).
• Bukit Selambau is a large one for a state-level seat, with 35,125 voters. In contrast, the largest DUN in Bukit Gantang has only nearly 25 thousand voters . Sarawak's Batang Air DUN by-election will involve only about 8 thousand voters.
• There are 22 DMs (Daerah Mengundi, voting districts).
• There are 22 TMs (Tempat Mengundi, voting stations), which means there are no sharing of voting stations across voting districts. This also means NGOs need to send at least 22 observers to just cover each voting station with one person.
• There are 64 voting streams, typically a voting classroom.

• Not shown in the table: Of the 15 postal voters, 10 are police personnel in 2 police stations. Five are absentee voters currently not living locally.
  

Table A: P014 Merbok N25 Bukit Selambau 200902 By-Election

Parl/DUN	NamaDUN	DM count	TM count	Saluran count	Voter count
014/25/01	Bukit Selambau	22	22	64	35,125
Total Count	1	22	22	64	35,125	non-postal voters
					15	postal voters
Total including postal voters					35,140	Total

To view voting history, candidate names, and racial breakdown, please see Undi.info at:

• N27 Bukit Selambu http://undi.info/ax/state/kd/2008/states/N25/P14.html
• P014 Merbok http://undi.info/ax/state/kd/2008/parliament/P14.html

Table B: Voting History in P014's N27 Bukit Selambu

2008 KEDAH: N25 - Bukit Selambau			Voters: 34,977
Party	Candidate	Votes	Majority
MIC	S Krishnan	10863
IND	V Arumugam	13225	2,362
Racial Breakdown
Malay: 50.20%, Chinese: 19.30%, Indian: 29.50%, Others: 1.00%
2004 KEDAH: N25 - Bukit Selambau			Voters: 30,322
Party	Candidate	Votes	Majority
MIC	Datuk V Saravanan	14196	7,695
PKR	Mustafa Khalid Hanafi	6501
DAP	G Ghanagaru a/l Ganisan	2120
Racial Breakdown
Malay: 48.3%, Chinese: 22.0%, Indian: 28.8%, Others: 0.8%
State Seats / Polling Districts
Kuala Sin, Kampong Sungkap, Bukit Lembu, Kongsi Enam, Sungai Lallang Luar, Sungai Lallang Utara, Bandar Laguna Merbok, Tasek Apong, Ayer Menideh, Jalan Badlishah, Taman Peruda, Taman Ria, Taman Ria Jaya, United Petani, Petani Para, Bukit Rusa, Pekan Bukit Selambau, Kampong Pokok Machang, Batu Belachan, Titi Panjang,

Source: http://undi.info