PUTRAJAYA - Polling for the Padang Serai parliamentary seat (P107) has been postponed to Dec 7 following the death of its incumbent candidate M. Karupaiya of Pakatan Harapan (PH).
Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh said the nomination date for candidates has been set for Nov 18.
"Early polls will be held on Dec 3," he said in a statement on Friday.
He said the duration of the campaign was set for 13 days after the nomination of candidates contesting in Nov 24 until 11.59pm Dec 6.
"The online applications for all overseas and domestic postal votes opens today (Friday) and closes on Nov 22," he said.
He said the Kulim District Officer Datuk Abdul Bari Abdullah was elected as the Election Managing Officer and was aided by six assistant managers.
"For the purpose of monitoring election campaign activities throughout the campaign period, the EC will establish two Election Campaign Enforcement Teams (PP-KPR)," he said.
Abdul Ghani said the Kulim Hi-Tech Sports Complex Hall, Kulim would be used as the Candidate Naming Centre (PPC) and the Official Vote Tallying Center (PPRU).
"The candidates that were eligible to be named previously are required to attend (the PPC) for the purpose of drawing their votes to determine their turn on the ballot paper.
"New potential candidates that want to contest in Padang Serai P017 for the 15 General Election (GE15) must submit their nomination papers that are completed and reviewed by the managing officer by the candidate or supporter or suggester on the candidate naming day," he said.
He said a total of 2,468 officers were nominated to manage the election process.
"The total number of polling centres is 47 with 232 polling stations or channels," he said.
Abdul Ghani said the EC would use the Electoral Register (DPPR) updated up to Oct 9.
"There is a total of 133,867 voters consisting of 133,776 ordinary voters, 76 police and 15 Overseas Absentee Voters," he said.
He said the Padang Serai DPPR will be sold on Nov 23.
"Voters can check polling information to find out polling station information, polling channel and their number through the portal https://mysprsemak.spr.gov.my or contact the EC hotline at 03-88927018 / 03-88880040 or through the MySPR Semak application," he said.
The PH candidate M Karupaiya, 69, was reported to have died due to a heart attack in Kulim Hospital, Kedah at 2.27pm on Wednesday.
In GE14 Karupaiya who was the former Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) officer with the rank of Warrant Officer 1 obtained 31,724 votes and defeated candidates from Pas and BN with a majority of 8,813 votes.
Padang Serai Parliament witnessed the six-corner clash with BN candidate Datuk Sivaraj Chandran, Hamzah Abd Rahman (Pejuang), Datuk Azman Nasrudin (Perikatan Nasional), Mohd Bakhri Hashim (Warisan) and independent candidate Amanda AK in GE15 on Saturday.