Nominations for the Shah Alam parliamentary and the two state constituencies of Kota Anggerik and Batu Tiga went smoothly today.

Several objections were filed by the Barisan Alternatif (BA) candidates against the three from Barisan Nasional (BN) but the Election Commission overruled all of them.

More than 1,000 supporters of BN, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) and its ally PAS gathered on either side of the volleyball hall compound in Section 19, Shah Alam.

Both sides were cordoned off by police personnel and Rela members, who kept the opposing groups as far apart as possible.

The six nominations were confirmed by the returning officer at about 12.30pm.

All three seats face straight fights, led by BN's Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin, 66, against PAS' Khalid Abd Samad, 47, for Shah Alam.

First-time contender, Abdul Aziz, was the long-time political secretary to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and was serving as deputy education minister before parliament was dissolved.

Khalid, an engineer by training, runs his own business. However, he is not new to elections, having contested in (and lost) Kota Raja to BN's Komala Ganapathy in 1999 by more than 2,300 votes.

He also lost the Sri Gading parliamentary seat in Johor to BN's Mohamad Aziz by more than 17, 500 votes in 1999.

In Kota Anggerik, BN's Ahmad Nawawi Zin, 42, will meet former lecturer and Keadilan supreme council member Animah Annette Ferrar, 57.

Ex-Shah Alam mayor Salamon Selamat, 57, would face businessman Shaari Abdul Malik, 46, for the Batu Tiga state seat.

'Unemployed' candidates

When met after the announcement, Khalid, who is the Shah Alam PAS division chief, said they were trying to confirm whether Abdul Aziz and Nawawi were in fact unemployed as claimed in their nomination forms.

"Both are company directors but since the EC considered that the position as not being employed, the objections were thrown out," he said.

"As for Salamon, we wanted to know if he was still the Shah Alam mayor. The EC told us that he had resigned based on a copy of the resignation letter."

When confirming the candidates, the returning officer announced that there were five objections, three for Shah Alam and one each for the two state seats. However, he did not elaborate.

Supporters were armed with the respective parties' banners, posters, flags, balloons and placards.

The BA brought along bunga manggar (poles stuck with strips of shiny-coloured paper) and waved giant green and blue-white flags.

The disparity was obvious. The rather quiet BN crowd had plastic chairs and tents set up temporarily at the car park while the opposition folks sat on the grass under the trees and by the roadside.

The long wait for the EC's announcement was only disrupted by shouts of 'reformasi' and 'Allahu akhbar' while BN supporters crooned their 'Barisan Kita' patriotic song.