PADANG SERAI: Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk C. Sivaraj is officially making way for Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Dr Mohamad Sofee Razak for the Padang Serai parliamentary election.
This was announced by Kedah Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom during the first joint rally between the state PH and BN in Taman Desa Aman here tonight.
Jamil said the move was to honour the formation of the unity government at federal level comprising PH, BN and other coalitions.
Earlier, Parti Warisan announced the party was pulling out from the race to make way for the PH candidate.
However, Sivaraj was not seen at the rally.
The announcement confirmed earlier speculations that BN would pull out of the race.
Present at the rally were Parti Amanah Negara president Mohamad Sabu, Amanah vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar who is also Kedah PH chairman and state PKR chief Datuk Johari Abdul.
In his speech, Sofee thanked BN for the decision which allowed PH to have a straight fight with Perikatan Nasional.
It was reported earlier that Sivaraj's last appearance for his campaign was on Wednesday, when he met with voters in Taman Serai Wangi.
Prior to that, Sivaraj was campaigning at the Sungai Karangan night market, where he crossed paths with Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Datuk Azman Nasrudin and Arau PN member of parliament Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim.
Earlier on Wednesday evening, Sivaraj told reporters that he was still campaigning as usual as he had yet to receive any instruction from the BN leadership.
He had also reiterated that it was the PH candidate who should be making way for him since he had been working in the constituency for the past three years.
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.