ALOR SETAR: Padang Serai, a sleepy town near Kulim surrounded by oil palm plantations, has suddenly been thrown into the limelight after the passing of the Pakatan Harapan candidate, M. Karupaiya.
The election for the seat looks set to be put on hold with the Election Commission (EC) meeting tomorrow to decide on the next step.
The 69-year-old PKR incumbent, a former army officer, was rushed to hospital after he fell at a ceramah site in Kulim on Saturday.
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He died at 2.30pm yesterday.
PKR secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution said the Elections (Conduct) Regulations 1981, Regulation 11 (6) states that there should be no polling at Padang Serai this Saturday if one of its candidates dies before polling.
“Our lawyers will scrutinise the law. We expect a new writ to be issued by the Election Commission for the new polling date,” he said yesterday.
Heartache: Widow N. Usha unable to hold back tears as she took part in the last rites for her husband, Karupaiya (right), at their home in Taman Cekur Manis, Kulim, yesterday. — Bernama
Saifuddin said the lawyers and candidate’s representative will furnish the death certificate to the returning officer with a copy to the EC.
“We are still waiting for the death certificate,” he said.
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It is believed Karupaiya died of ischaemic heart disease (the narrowing of arteries which could lead to a heart attack).
Saifuddin had earlier said that the last time he saw Karupaiya was during the Pakatan ceramah in Kulim along with coalition chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Pokok Sena candidate Datuk Mahfuz Omar.
“On behalf of PKR and Pakatan, I would like to express my condolences to the family.
“His passing is a great loss to the party and the Reformasi struggle.
“His service to Parliament, the people of Padang Serai and the Malaysian Armed Forces will be remembered,” he said.
Padang Serai Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Sivarraajh Chandran also offered his condolences to Karupaiya’s family and supporters.
In a statement later, the EC said a special meeting would be held tomorrow to discuss the election process for Padang Serai.
The seat has 133,948 voters, with the majority being Malays (62.34%), followed by Indians (19.30%), Chinese (17.64%) and others (0.72%).
The seat created in 1974 was a Barisan stronghold for more than three decades before it fell to Pakatan Rakyat (now Pakatan Harapan) in 2008.
Pakatan has clung on to the seat since then, except from 2011 to 2013 when its MP N. Gobalakrishnan left PKR and turned independent.
For GE15, Karupaiya was set to contest in a six-way tussle.
Besides Sivarraajh, the others are Datuk Azman Nasrudin (Perikatan Nasional), Hamzah Abdul Rahman (Pejuang), Mohd Bakri Hashim (Warisan) and Sreanandha Rao (independent).
In GE14, Karupaiya won the seat with a majority of 8,813 votes against PAS’ Muhamad Sobri Osman and Barisan’s Datuk Dr Leong Yong Kong.
