Election in Padang Serai postponed following candidate's death

GE15 | The election for the Padang Serai MP will be postponed following the death of one of its contenders, Karupaiya Mutusami.

Checks by Malaysiakini on the Election Commission’s (EC) MySPR Semak website found a notice that reads: “The 15th general election for P017 Padang Serai is postponed due to a candidate’s death.”

The notice only appears during checks using Padang Serai voters’ personal details.

The contest for Padang Serai was meant to be a six-cornered fight between incumbent Karupaiya Mutusami (Pakatan Harapan) versus Pejuang’s Hamzah Abd Rahman, BN’s Sivaraj Chandran, Perikatan Nasional’s Azman Nasrudin, Warisan’s Mohd Bakhri Hashim, and independent candidate Ananda AK.

However, Karupaiya collapsed on the campaign trail on Monday (Nov 14) and died at Kulim Hospital the following day. The business owner and former military officer was 69 years old.

The EC is slated to meet tomorrow to decide on a new date for the election in Padang Serai.

The postponement would, in theory, reduce the threshold for a simple majority in Parliament to 111 seats instead of 112, since only 221 seats are now being contested.

Malaysians will head to the polls on Nov 19, with early voting having already taken place on Nov 15 including in Padang Serai.

Meanwhile, Free Malaysia Today reports that the Padang Serai returning officer (RO) has returned the writ of election to the EC today, in order to pave way for the postponement.

The report says under the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981, Regulation 11(6) stipulates that the EC can call for a by-election on another day if a candidate dies.

“This can only be done after the RO endorses the reasons for the inability to hold the election on the reverse of the writ issued to him and return it to the EC,” the report says.

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