As the late state assistant minister Dr Judson Tagal, who perished in a recent helicopter crash in Sarawak, was being laid to rest, local newspapers had already begun to focus on the by-election for his Be'kalalan state seat.
In a front-page report, the Sarawak Tribune quoted state assembly speaker Asfia Awang Nassar as saying that a by-election must be held since the present term for the state assembly will only expire in 2006.
Judson, a trained medical surgeon, was the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) secretary-general and serving his second term as Ba'kelalan assemblyperson. In the last state election in 2001, he was returned unopposed.
The 49-year-old politician, was among the seven who were killed when their helicopter crashed in the dense jungles of Bario, Baram on July 12. Their bodies were recovered after an extensive 17-day search and rescue operation.
Others killed were contractor Marcus Raja, Padawan Municipal Council chairperson Lawrence Th'ng, Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation (Sesco) chief executive officer Roger Wong, Sesco engineers Jason Eng and Ling Tian Ho as well as pilot Capt Samsuddin Hashim.
State cabinet post
Meanwhile, several names have been tossed about as possible contestants for the Ba'kelalan by-election and one of them is Judson's private secretary Nelson Balang.
According to a local Barisan Nasional leader, "Nelson knows the area well and works closely with the people on the ground".
The constituency has an electorate of about 8000 voters, made up largely of the Christian Lun Bawang community. Both Judson and Nelson are from this community.
"The Lun Bawang community has a strong sense of unity and they strongly back the BN," another local leader told malaysiakini .
Finding a candidate of high calibre from this community is not a problem but pundits wonder if Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud would wait for the by-election before filling in the vacant state assistant minister post or would he choose one of the two remaining elected representatives in SPDP to replace Judson.
The two elected representatives are Tasik Biru state assemblyperson Peter Nansian and Limbang state assemblyperson Richard Wong.
Presently, SPDP has one full state minister, two assistant ministers and one federal deputy minister.
TONY THIEN is malaysiakini 's Sarawak-based stringer.