The small town of Manek Urai has been buzzing with activity since early this morning with thousands of supporters from both PAS and Umno mobilising to back their respective candidates to file in their nomination papers.

Nomination opened at 9am, but supporters from both sides of the divide started gathering at their respective meeting points from 7am.

bn umno candidate and leaders manek urai by election nomination day 060709 14 Umno members, who gathered at the party headquarters in Kuala Krai, kept themselves busy by playing traditional drums and gongs to the dikir barat beat while waiting for their national leaders to arrive.

First on the scene was the party's state chief Mustapa Mohamed. Secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor was on hand to supervise preparations.

By 8.30am, some 2,000 Umno supporters were gearing up for the short walk to the nomination centre.

Senior Umno leaders like deputypresident Muhyiddin Yassin, vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein, Mohd Shafie Apdal, Wanita chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin were also there.

bn umno candidate and leaders manek urai by election nomination day 060709 11 They performed a short prayer before marching to the nomination centre at about 8.50am.

At the PAS end, about 2,000 of the supporters started gathering at the Kuala Krai junction by about 7am.

And by the time the party held a special prayer session at the Al-Jauhar mosque, the number had swelled to almost 10,000.

These supporters, led by their spiritual adviser and Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, started marching towards the nomination centre at about 8.10am.

The SMK Sultan Yahya Petra 1 nomination centre is located about 1.4km away.

Strong police presence

pas candidate and pakatan leaders manek urai by election 060709 20 Other PAS leaders in the crowd included PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, Husam Musa, Khalid Samad and Hatta Ramli. Deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa was not among them.

Pakatan Rakyat leaders like Azmin Ali, Zaid Ibrahim, Khalid Ibrahim and Tan Seng Giaw were also present.

On the way, these PAS supporters shouted slogans like Hidup Islam and recited verses from the Quran. Many waved PAS flags.

As the main road leading to the nomination centre had been blocked by the police, the opposing groups of supporters had to face off along the road leading to the nomination centre.

By 8.40am, Nik Aziz and several Pakatan leaders had entered the nomination centre with their candidate.

pas candidate and leaders manek urai by election nomination day 060709 26 There was a strong police presence at the nomination centre. Traffic in Manek Urai had come to a standstill while enterprising locals had set up stalls everywhere.

Kelantan police chief Abdul Rahim Hanafi estimated that about 7,000 PAS supporters and 4,000 BN supporters had gathered this morning.

He added that no untoward incidents had been reported and hoped the supporters would respect law and order.

pas candidate and leaders manek urai by election nomination day 060709 27 Some 2,100 police personnel were deployed, including 600 at the nomination centre.

The by-election on July 14 will see PAS' Mohd Fauzi Abdullah, 50, taking on Umno's Tuan Aziz Tuan Mat, 39.

The by-election on July 14 has been called because of the death of former state assemblyman Ismail Yaakob, of PAS, on May 22.

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