Nomination Day fell on April 28 in Malaysia, and there was no shortage of drama as candidates lined up to register for the 14th Malaysia general election.

There were 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat (Lower House of Parliament) up for grabs, along with 505 seats in the various State Legislatures.

Multi-cornered fights

One of the most significant developments was contests with multiple candidates vying for the same seat.

The incumbent usually benefits from a multi-cornered fight, as voters opposing them will have a variety of opponents to choose from.

For example, take the contest involving Prime Minister Najib Razak, defending his seat of Pekan in the state of Pahang.

Najib represents the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, and his biggest opponent should be Zahid Mohamad Arip of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

But two other candidates were also allowed to contest by the Election Commission (EC), Ahiatudin Daud of the Islamic Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and Abdul Kadir Sainuddin, an independent.

This would make it harder for any of the opposition candidates to beat Najib, as it is likely that the BN supporters would rally behind Najib while the opposition vote would be split three ways.

This was probably why in Singapore's own general election in 2015, the opposition parties attempted to "work together" to avoid multi-cornered fights.

Two other notable multi-cornered fights involved the opposition figures of former PM Mahathir Mohamad and PKR's President Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Wan Azizah is contesting the seat of Pandan in Selangor against four opponents, including representatives of the BN, PAS, the revived Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) and an independent.

The seat was previously held by the PKR, but under vice-president Rafizi Ramli and not Wan Azizah herself.

Whereas Mahathir has a tough fight on his hands, contesting the Langkawi seat in Perak against the BN incumbent and a PAS candidate.

Disqualified candidates

However, at least those politicians were allowed to run. Others saw their candidacies rejected by the EC.

In the state of Negeri Sembilan, PKR candidate Streram Sinnasamy was denied entry to the nomination centre.

Apparently, Streram did not have an EC candidate pass.

This means that the incumbent, Negeri Sembilan's Chief Minister Mohamad Hasan of the BN, won his seat unopposed.

Mohamad denied that the BN had anything to do with Streram's disqualification.

He said:

"The EC is not handled by BN. It is not our fault he could not enter the centre. This has nothing to do with external parties."

An internal inquiry and a police investigation is ongoing.

Another opposition candidate, PKR's Chua Tian Chang, was disqualified from contesting his Batu seat in the Federal Territories over a previous court case.

His candidacy was rejected by the EC due to a RM3,000 fine imposed upon him in 2017 for a conviction over insulting the modesty of a police officer, by using foul language.

The Federal Constitution states that a candidate can be disqualified from Parliament if they've received a fine of "not less" than RM2,000, and the Elections Regulations can reject a candidate if they cannot be elected an MP.

However, in March 2018 the Shah Alam High Court reduced the fine from RM3,000 to RM2,000. The judgment even stated that Chua would only be disqualified if the fine was RM2,001 and above.

Theoretically, Chua should be able to compete in GE14. He faced a similar situation in 2013, when he was fined RM2,000 but was allowed to compete in GE13.

Chua has since filed a lawsuit to reverse the rejection of his candidacy.

No Raja Bomoh

If you were hoping for a little more magic on Nomination Day, bad news, because the Shaman King of the World was another candidate who failed to make the cut.

Ibrahim Mat Zin or "Raja Bomoh", as he was widely known, recently proclaimed that he intended to stand as a candidate in the state of Perak.

But his would-be opponent Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi waited in vain for Ibrahim's successful nomination.

Apparently, he had been declared a bankrupt. Said Ahmad Zahid:

"We welcome anyone to contest here – the more the merrier. But I was told he had been declared a bankrupt. We even waited for him but he didn’t show up."

Ibrahim gained fame after performing a bizarre ritual in 2014 involving a walking stick, a carpet and a pair of coconuts, which he claimed would help authorities to locate the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

But now he won't compete for the seat of Bagan Datuk, which happens to be one of the largest coconut producers in Malaysia.

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Top image adapted from Najib Razak's Twitter page and Mahathir Mohamad's Facebook page

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