PETALING JAYA: Instead of tomorrow, the voters in Padang Serai will cast their ballots on Dec 7, to elect their new representative for the parliamentary seat, says the Election Commission (EC) chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh.
The new date was decided following the death of Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate M. Karupaiya on Wednesday, due to heart complications while being treated at Kulim Hospital.
Karupaiya was defending the seat for the second term.
"The special meeting held today decided that the election for Padang Serai parliamentary seat (P017) needed to be held again. As such, the voting process will not be held on Nov 19 (tomorrow).
"The EC has fixed the nomination day to take place on Nov 24 (Thursday), early voting on Dec 3 (Saturday), and polling day on Dec 7 (Wednesday).
"The campaigning period is for 13 days, starting after the announcement of the candidates to contest in the election on Nov 24, until 11.59pm on Dec 7," he said in a statement today.
He said the applications for domestic and international postal voting online are open, starting today (Nov 18) to Nov 22 (Tuesday).
He said the EC has appointed Kulim district officer Datuk Abdul Bari Abdullah as the returning officer for the election.
"Kulim Hi-Tech Sports Complex will be used as the nomination centre and vote-tallying centre."
He said for the nomination day, the candidates that were named before are required to be present at the nomination centre for the ball draw process to determine their position on the ballot paper.
"As for the new candidates who want to contest in the election, they must come and submit their nomination papers with their proposers and seconders at the centre."
The cost for the Padang Serai election is estimated at RM1.6 million.
There will be 47 voting centres with 232 voting channels, including one early polling centre with two voting channels.
The electoral roll being used for the Padang Serai election is until Oct 9.
There are 133,867 voters in Padang Serai, involving 133,776 normal voters, 76 police, and 15 overseas absent voters.
Karupaiya won the seat in the last election by a 8,813-vote majority against Muhamad Sobri Osman from Pas and Datuk Dr Leong Yong Kong from Barisan Nasional (BN).
Karupaiya was supposed to face six-cornered clashes in this election against BN candidate Datuk C. Sivarraajh, Hamzah Abd Rahman (Pejuang), Datuk Azman Nasrudin (Perikatan Nasional), Mohd Bakhri Hashim (Warisan) and Ananda AK (independent).
Malaysians will cast their ballots tomorrow, starting from 8am to 6pm for Peninsular Malaysia and 7.30am to 5.30pm in Sabah and Sarawak.