KUALA LUMPUR: The 15th general election for the Padang Serai parliamentary seat has been postponed following the sudden death of one of its candidates, M. Karupaiya.
A check on the Election Commission (EC) website, MySPR Semak also found that the link for seat P.017 Padang Serai has been removed from the website.
Meanwhile, a news portal reported that Padang Serai voters who checked their voting records on the same website were also informed about the postponement.
Among other things, it displays a notice that reads: "The 15th General Election for P017 Padang Serai has been postponed due to the death of a candidate."
Padang Serai parliament should have witnessed a six-cornered contest between the incumbent, M. Karupaiya from Pakatan Harapan (PH) against Hamzah Abd Rahman (PEJANG), Datuk Sivaraj Chandran (BN), Azman Nasrudin (PN), Mohd Bakhri Hashim (WARISAN) and independent candidate, Ananda AK.
M. Karupaiya, 69, died at Kulim Hospital on Wednesday, believed to be due to a heart attack and other health complications.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had on Thursday called out Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said for suggesting not to postpone the Padang Serai parliamentary election.
He described Azalina's statement as "wholly unjustified" citing that it violated and deprived the Constitution and fundamental civil rights of constituency voters regarding their choice of candidates, including the choice of political parties.
The EC is scheduled to hold a special meeting today to discuss the new voting date for Padang Serai.