PADANG SERAI: Parti Warisan is urging its supporters not to vote for the party's candidate Mohd Bakhri Hashim in the Padang Serai parliamentary election this Dec 7.
Its state liaison committee chairman, Datuk Fadzil Hanafi, said this was in line with the party's decision to withdraw from the race following the formation of the unity government at the federal level.
"We are lending our full support to Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Dr Mohamad Sofee Razak.
"We have instructed our election machinery and supporters to support the PH candidate for Padang Serai instead," he told reporters here today.
Fadzil acknowledged that there could be confusion among Warisan supporters since the party candidate's name will still appear on the ballot paper.
"Yes, that is in accordance with the Election Commission's regulation that any candidate whose nomination has been officially accepted, cannot withdraw from the election.
"Thus, we are going to the ground to inform our supporters to vote for Dr Sofee in support of the unity government," he said.
On Nov 24, Warisan announced that the party's candidate was withdrawing from the race, several hours after the nomination process was closed.
The Padang Serai parliamentary election will see six-cornered battle.
The candidates are Datuk Azman Nasrudin (Perikatan Nasional); Datuk C. Civaraj (Barisan Nasional); Dr Mohamad Sofee Razak (Pakatan Harapan); Hamzah Abdul Rahman (Pejuang); Mohd Bakri Hashim (Warisan), and an Independent candidate Sreadnandha Rao.
The Padang Serai parliamentary seat was previously held by PH's M. Karupaiya when he secured a 8,813 vote-majority win, beating MCA candidate Datuk Dr Leong Yong Kong and Mohammad Sobri Osman from Pas in the previous general election.
Karupaiya, 69, was nominated again by PH on Nov 5 to defend the seat. However, he died on Nov 16, two days after being admitted to Kulim Hospital due to a heart attack while campaigning.
Following his death, the Election Commission had decided to postpone the Padang Serai polls to Dec 7.
Padang Serai has 133,767 eligible voters, with 81,230 of the voters in Lunas state constituency while the remaining 52,546 voters in Merbau Pulas constituency.