PADANG SERAI: Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for Padang Serai parliamentary seat Datuk C. Sivaraj today backed the call for the Kedah government to declare Dec 7 as a special public holiday.
Sivaraj said the move would encourage voters to come out and cast their ballot in the 15th General Election (GE15) for the constituency, which was postponed to Dec 7 following the death of Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate M. Karupaiya.
"Yes, I will be grateful if the state government declares a special public holiday on Dec 7 because there are many young voters who are working on that day.
"To me, it will be something very positive if the state government declares a one-day special holiday to encourage civil servants, staff in state agencies and the private sector to vote," Sivaraj said during his campaign trail in Kampung Padang here today.
Earlier, Bersatu Information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan also urged the Kedah government to declare Dec 7 a special public holiday.
Wan Saiful said the move was necessary as the polling day would fall on Wednesday, which might deter many workers from exercising their democratic rights.
The Padang Serai parliamentary seat was won by Karupaiya in 2018. The 69-year-old 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 because of a heart attack while campaigning.
The Padang Serai parliamentary seat has 133,767 eligible voters, with 81,230 in the Lunas state constituency, and the remaining 52,546 are in the Merbau Pulas state constituency.
Sivaraj will be facing a six-cornered fight to wrest Padang Serai from PH, which had won the seat through PKR since 2008.
The BN candidate is in the fray with PH candidate Dr Mohamad Sofee Razak; Datuk Azman Nasrudin (Perikatan Nasional); Mohd Bakhri Hashim (Parti Warisan); Hamzah Abdul Rahman (Parti Pejuang Tanah Air) and Sreanandha Rao (Independent).
