SHAH ALAM, July 21 — It will be a three-cornered fight in the Sg Kandis by-election between Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH), and an independent.

Besides PKR’s Mohd Zawawi Ahmad Mughni and Umno supreme council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam, independent candidate K. Murthy will be the third person fighting for the Selangor state seat.

At 10.30am, returning officer Datuk Ahmad Zaharin announced that he was satisfied and found no discrepancies from the nomination forms of all three candidates.

Lokman, when met with reporters, said he expected a lot of local issues such as dengue and drainage problems popping up in the next two weeks of the campaigning period.

“I will address all these even if a national issue comes up,” he said.

Mohd Zawawi, meanwhile, said he hoped Sungai Kandis voters would continue to give PKR another mandate to represent the people here at the state legislative assembly.

“Our track record has been good, so I hope the people will continue to realise and give us a mandate again,” he said.

Independent candidate Murthy said he has not planned his election campaign yet.

The 60-year-old former Selangor state civil servant appeared hostile towards reporters and prohibited photographers from taking his picture.

When asked why he wanted to contest the seat, Murthy only said that he wanted to “return good deeds to the people”.

Umno information chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa told reporters that BN was still relevant and that contesting the by-election was an act of democracy.

“If BN is not contesting, the people will be deprived of a political choice to choose from,” he said.

Asked if PAS will assist Umno in this election, Annuar said there was no discussion on such a collaboration between both parties.

“But for PAS to give us way to take on PH, I think that is already a positive step ahead for both parties,” he said.

The seat fell vacant following the death of its assemblyman Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei from PKR on July 2 after battling lymphatic cancer.

The Sungai Kandis constituency has 51,230 registered voters comprising 51,217 ordinary voters and 13 overseas voters.

Polling for the by-election is set on August 4.