Pakatan's Padang Serai candidate M. Karupaiya passes away

ALOR SETAR: ALOR SETAR: M. Karupaiya, 70, Pakatan Harapan's candidate for the Padang Serai seat, has passed away on Wednesday (Nov 16).

It is learnt that the former army officer, fell during one of his campaign trail at Padang Serai.

The state Pakatan Harapan deputy chairman Datuk Johari Abdul confirmed the incident adding that the 15th General Election (GE15) for Padang Serai constituency should be put on hold temporarily.

Johari said according to the law the Election Commission would have to redo the renomination process for the constituency to give a chance to the party to replace the candidate that passed away.

"The EC will have to set a new date for this," he said briefly when contacted.

Karupaiya, 70, won the seat in GE14 after defeating MCA's Leong Yong Kong and PAS' Muhammad Sobri Osman with a majority 8,813 of votes.

Other candidates for the Padang Serai seat are Barisan Nasional's Datuk Sivaraj Chandran, Pejuang's Hamzah Abd Rahman, Perikatan Nasional's Datuk Azman Nasrudin, Warisan's Mohd Bakhri Hashim and independent candidate Sreanandha Rao.

When contacted a source in Kedah EC said a statement on the matter would be issued by EC headquarters soon.