MUAR, Nov 5 — Datuk Seri Edmund Santhara Kumar is not seeking re-election in the Johor parliamentary seat of Segamat, based on the final list of confirmed candidates issued by the Election Commission after nominations closed today.
His omission is a surprise after Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) named him as its candidate there two days ago.
Santhara won Segamat on a PKR ticket in Election 2018 with 24,060 votes a margin of 5,476 votes against his closest challenger Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam from Barisan Nasional (BN) and PAS' Khairul Faizi Ahmad Kamil.
He defected to Bersatu after the Sheraton Move in early 2020 and later on to PBM.
Segamat will now see a four-cornered battle between BN, Pakatan Harapan, Perikatan Nasional and Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang).
BN is represented by Tan Sri M. Ramasamy, Syed Hairoul Faizey Syed Ali will contest for Pejuang, R. Yuneswaran for PH and Poobalan Ponnusamy for PN.
Last month, Edmund told news portal The Vibes that he plans to defend his Segamat parliamentary seat to continue executing “numerous people-oriented initiatives” there for another term.
In the interview, he claimed to have spent over RM1 million of his own money on the Johor parliamentary constituency on top of government allocations.
He said the money was spent on boats and vehicles for government agencies to help with the flood relief.
Malay Mail has contacted Edmund for comments on his sudden decision to drop out of the race but has yet to receive a reply at press time.
