Third candidate knocked out of Johor campaign by Covid-19

 

JOHOR POLLS | A third candidate in the Johor polls has been knocked out of the state election campaign for a week after coming down with Covid-19.

BN's Penggaram candidate Ter Hwa Kwong (above), who is from MCA, confirmed he is Covid-19 positive this morning, after receiving his reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result.

In a statement, Ter said he had cancelled all his scheduled programmes yesterday, after learning that he had come in close contact with a Covid-19 patient and his team members placed themselves under self-quarantine pending the results of their test.

Following the confirmation of his positive result, he will now undergo the relevant quarantine procedures as set out by the Health Ministry, the MCA man added.

Ter urged those who had come in close contact with him to undergo a Covid-19 test and he also apologised for the inconvenience.

Back on polling day eve

The quarantine period is seven days for fully vaccinated individuals, which means Ter will only be able to return to physical campaigning on the eve of polling day.

In Penggaram, Ter is facing Perikatan Nasional's Sia Wee Yet and DAP's Gan Peck Cheng.

Gan is the incumbent who won with a 17,205-vote majority in the last general election.

PKR’s Bukit Batu candidate Chiong Sen Sern

On Feb 27, PKR's Bukit Batu candidate Chiong Sen Sern also confirmed he was infected with the Sars-CoV-2 virus.

A day prior to the date, which was nomination day, PKR's Gambir candidate Naim Jusri learnt he was Covid-19 positive upon arriving at the nomination centre.

He was allowed to file his nomination papers through his proposer but was kept isolated at the centre.

Phone campaigning

Candidates under quarantine have to resort to making phone calls to voters at home while their team canvassed without their candidate.

Some parties, such as Pejuang, have taken more extreme measures.

The party replaced its announced Endau candidate Zaini Tahar with Mohd Noorhisyam Ibrahim after Zaini was found positive with Covid-19 on the eve of nomination day.

However, candidates who are already officially nominated cannot be replaced as the names on the ballot cannot be changed. - Mkini