The first parliamentary by-election in Penang will take place on May 25 for the seat left empty with the death of Karpal Singh.

Nominations will take place on May 12, Election Commission chairperson Abdul Aziz Yusof announced today.

DAP supremo Karpal Singh, who has been holding the seat since 2004, died in an accident along the North-South Expressway, near Kampar, on April 17.

Neither DAP or BN have announced their candidates for the seat as of yet for the fourth by by-election to take place since the general election last May, which will cost RM1.9 million.

The constituency has  82,351 voters. Karpal won with resounding majority of more than 42,000 votes in the last election.

Advance voting will take place on May 21, while the EC is maintaining its recent standards to accord a 13-day campaigning period.

“We have chosen this date in order to accommodate the PKR polls and also Labour Day,” Abdul Aziz said in a press conference at the EC headquarters today.

The previous four by-elections, post-GE13, were all state by-elections, one each in Kedah, Selangor, Sarawak and Terengganu.

The first by-election was for the Kuala Besut, which was won by BN, followed by a PAS victory in Sungai Limau in Kedah.

Both these by-elections were caused by the deaths of its incumbents.

The latest by-election took place in Balingian, Sarawak, as a result of former chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s strategic move to vacate his seat in order to take over as governor of the state.