33 Candidates Lose Deposits In Melaka Polls

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Former DAP man Norhizam Hassan Baktee, who stood as an independent in Pengkalan Batu, lost his deposit.PETALING JAYA: A total of 33 of the 112 candidates in the Melaka state elections yesterday lost their deposits, including all the 22 independent candidates.
Others included two from Gerakan who stood under the Perikatan National ticket, two from PKR (Pakatan Harapan), one from MCA (Barisan Nasional), five from Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) and one from Parti Perikatan India Muslim Nasional (Iman).
Former state exco member Norhizam Hassan Baktee, who was among the four assemblymen who caused the fall of the previous Melaka government, only garnered 1,218 votes in Pengkalan Batu as an independent.
The former DAP assemblyman, who quit the party to become an independent during the Sheraton Move last year, needed to get at least 1,691 votes in the five-cornered contest, which saw a total of 13,528 votes being cast.
Under the election laws, a candidate for a state assembly seat has to deposit RM5,000 to contest and this will be forfeited if he polls less than one-eighth of the total ballots cast.
The PKR candidates who lost their deposits were Zainal Hassan in Tanjung Bidara and Mazenah Baharuddin in Ayer Limau.
As for the Gerakan candidates, Fong Khai Ling lost in Kota Laxamana with 811 votes and Clarice Chan Miing Wang in Bandar Hilir with 594. Both these two seats were won by DAP candidates with huge majorities.
The lowest number of votes was obtained by independent Mohan Singh in Gadek with 23 votes in a six-cornered contest. The seat was won by the MIC candidate from Barisan Nasional.
A total of 19 candidates, mostly independents, garnered fewer than 100 votes each, with four of them getting fewer than 50 votes. - FMT

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