Candidates with the most votes to be declared the winners, even if they have withdrawn, says EC

The candidates who garner the most votes in the Padang Serai parliamentary seat and the Tioman state seat in the 15th general election (GE15) will still be declared the winners although they may have announced their withdrawal.

Election Commission (EC) chairman Abdul Ghani Salleh said this was because their candidacies had been confirmed on nomination day on Nov 24.

"We will still declare them the winners, although they announced their withdrawal. Candidates are only allowed to withdraw during the nomination process, between 9am and 10am.

"After 10am, a candidate cannot withdraw because his nomination had been accepted," he told reporters after inspecting the polling process at SMK Sultan Badlishah in Kulim today.

Polling for the two seats could not be held on Nov 19 due to the deaths of candidates, namely M Karupaiya of Pakatan Harapan (PH) for Padang Serai and Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Md Yunus Ramli for Tioman.

For the Padang Serai parliamentary seat, Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate C Sivaraj and Warisan candidate Mohd Bakhri Hashim had announced their withdrawal from the election to give way to PH candidate Mohamad Sofee Razak.

In Tioman, meanwhile, PH candidate Mohd Fadzli Mohd Ramly announced that he would give way to BN candidate Mohd Johari Hussien as a sign of respect for the government formed between both parties.

Meanwhile, the EC expects a voter turnout of between 60% and 75%.