☕️ EC: 21 mil eligible voters for GE15

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

21,173,638 (21 mil) Malaysians are eligible to vote in the 15th General Election (GE15), according to the Election Commission. Selangor has the highest number of voters — 3.6 mil. The passing of Undi18 brought in an additional 1,393,549 voters and combined with the Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) system, the total number of voters has increased by 40.9% since GE14.. For those of you who have Malaysian friends overseas, let them know they can register to postal vote here. The date to remember is 19th November 2022. 

USD1.2 bil (RM5.68 bil) — the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s budget commitment to end polio worldwide. The money will be used to help implement the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026. The initiative’s main focus would be Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries.

39 days — Kwasi Kwarteng’s tenure in Liz Truss’s cabinet. His mini-budget on Sept 23rd unleashed the financial and political turmoil experienced by the country. He doesn’t hold the record for the shortest tenure in office; that title goes to Iain Macleod — 31 days. His boss, (former) PM Liz Truss outlasted him by just a week (more below).

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

GE15 falls on 19th November

19th November is a date to remember for all Malaysians 18 years and above as we will fulfil one of our responsibilities as Malaysians on that day. Apart from the election for 222 parliamentary seats, Pahang, Perak and Perlis will conduct their state elections simultaneously. At the same time, states controlled by either PH or PAS will wait until next year to hold their respective elections. Even though there are calls from certain factions for the campaigning period to be extended beyond the usual 2-weeks period, the Election Commission (EC) stuck to their guns and said that a fortnight is enough. Below are the critical dates for GE15:

GE15 updates:

1. Pakatan Harapan candidate for prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, will be contesting in Tambun, Perak. The incumbent for Tambun is the caretaker sports minister, Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who won the seat by a majority of 5,320 votes or a 6.12% margin. Anwar will keep his word to fight one of the “katak” that was guilty of creating the political mess we are currently in.

2. #SorryNotSorry Najib Razak — as the Prisons Department confirmed that inmates, including the former premier, are not allowed to issue any statements for the purpose of campaigning in GE15. This policy of inmates being unable to campaign has been there forever, but because of Najib Razak, everyone needs to remind him of the fact that he is in jail.

3. Two of our airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Firefly, have started to perform their corporate social responsibilities to ease Malaysians to vote in the upcoming GE15 by offering discounted fares and increased flight frequencies, especially on several routes in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. Now, let’s see how a PN17 airline responds to this.

The cheating case against one of the prosecution’s witnesses in Lim Guan Eng’s corruption trial was classified as NFA

The prosecution disclosed during Lim Guan Eng’s Penang Undersea Tunnel project corruption trial that prosecution witness G. Gnanaraja’s investigation paper for one of his cases was classified as ‘no further action’ (NFA). Previously, Gnanaraja was charged in 2019 for cheating Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB) director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli of RM19 million. On top of that, the latest checks on the Malaysian-Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) website revealed that Gnanaraja was only imposed a fine of RM230,000 over a separate charge under the Companies Act. Unrelated to this news, it is known that both Lim Guan Eng and Zahid Hamidi are embroiled in their respective court cases. While it is clear as day that Zahid will be contesting in GE15, will Lim do the same?

DASH recorded its first fatality less than a week after it was opened to the public

The problematic Damansara-Shah Alam Elevated Expressway (DASH) — unpaid payment to subcontractors, bottleneck exit at Puncak Alam — just to name a few of its problems, had recorded its first fatality less than a week after its opening when a 24-year-old food delivery man skidded and hit a road divider. Petaling Jaya District Police Chief ACP Fhakhrudin Abdul Hamid is urging the public with any information about the accident to contact the police.

IJM set to partner with Sapura and SMH Rail for the MRT3 project

Although not publicly confirmed, IJM Corp Berhad is said to be in talks with both Sapura Holdings Sdn Bhd and SMH Rail Sdn Bhd to form a joint venture to bid for the upcoming systems turnkey contract of the RM50.2bil MRT3 project. According to one source quoted by The Edge, although all three companies have vast experience managing rail systems projects, the joint venture will have trouble securing funding. An interesting fact, the current MRT Corp CEO, Mohd Zarif Hashim, used to hold various positions at Sapura. Hopefully, no cherry-picking happens here and may the best company wins the contract for the MRT3 project, which is going to cost the taxpayers almost RM1bil per km.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

The lettuce prevailed!!!

Liz Truss has announced her resignation after she lost two of her most senior ministers in less than a week — first Krawteng and now Suella Braverman, her interior minister. She was in the office for a month and a half — 45 days, to be exact. Ms Truss will become the shortest-serving PM in British history when she stands down. Braverman did not hold back in her resignation letter, saying she had “concerns about the direction of this government.” Bloomberg reports Boris Johnson might make a comeback. The Internet is having a good laugh on this news - our top picks here (Ryanair), here (Airbnb), here (Larry the cat) and here (book).

Elon Musk said he obviously overpaid for Twitter Inc., but..

.. does it matter when Tesla could eventually be the highest-valued company in the world? Musk spoke optimistically about Tesla (market cap: USD700 bil, at the point of writing), thinking that it could be worth more than Apple (USD2.3 tril) and Saudi Aramco (USD2.1 tril) combined.

The market certainly doesn’t agree with Musk as Tesla’s shares fell 5% after hours following Tesla’s release of its third-quarter earnings, with revenue coming below expectations at USD21.45 bil (vs USD21.96 bil). Net income for the quarter reached USD3.33 bil. Jesse Cohen, a senior analyst at Investing.com, thinks the turmoil in China is squeezing Tesla’s bottom line. Maybe that’s the reason why Musk pulled this stunt.

On another note, Musk said he is excited by the acquisition of Twitter Inc but admitted he and other investors overpaid for the “languished” social media platform. However, he thinks there is long-term value to be unlocked.

Ukrainians were told to “charge everything”

Russia's missile strikes have been targetting energy plants since Oct 10. Ukraine's national energy company, Ukrenergo, has appealed to Ukrainians to stock up with water and ensure they have “warm socks and blankets and hugs for family and friends;” in preparation for blackouts.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, an adviser to the energy minister, said as much as 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had been seriously damaged.

On the low but need to know

1. Your Netflix subscription may get more expensive as the streaming platform has announced it will officially begin to charge password sharing early next year. While Netflix hasn’t revealed how much it’ll cost, The Verge expects a “sub-account” to cost 1/4 of the monthly subscription fee, depending on your location.

2. Indonesia’s GoTo Group is in talks with early backers, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and SoftBank Group Corp, for a managed sale of some of their shares (USD1 bil) to new investors. The intention is to prevent a potential drop in GoTo's stock price that could occur when a lock-up of the investor holdings ends next month. The tech giant has a market value of about USD15 bil.

3. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index fell by more than 3% to its lowest level since May 2009 after Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee announced measures to boost security and plans to attract more overseas talent to the territory, but nothing elaborate on economic targets for the city. However, the city-state is currently in a technical recession.

Weekend Read: How did Captain Tsubasa become a hero for Spanish footballers growing up

How a fictional, 11-year-old Japanese boy called Tsubasa created in 1981 inspired a generation of footballers in Spain like Fernando Torres, Iker Casillas, Andres Iniesta etc. to pursue their football careers.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. The Pillars of Creation from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

2. There are 11 countries that have never been colonised by a European power, and our neighbour, Thailand, is one of them.

Happy Deepavali to those of you who celebrate. Safe travels!