78% early voters cast ballots

SEMENYIH: Seventy-eight per cent of the early voters in the Semenyih state by-election had cast their ballots by 5pm yesterday, according to the Election Commission (EC).

The two polling stations for early voting were at the General Operations Force (GOF) 4th Battalion Camp in Semenyih and the Kajang District Police headquarters in Kajang, which opened at 8am and closed at 5pm and 2pm, respectively.

The EC said 761 voters were eligible to cast their ballots at the GOF camp and 97, at the Kajang police headquarters.

The total number of early voters in the constituency is 951, of whom 93 had done so by mail.

The early voting process was witnessed by the agents of the contesting candidates as well as representatives of organisations and NGOs appointed by the EC.

The ballot boxes will be kept at a police station lockup and will be taken to the counting centres after polling closes at 5pm on polling day on Saturday.

Earlier yesterday, EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun monitored the early voting at the two polling stations.

The four candidates of the byelection - Muhammad Aiman Zainali of Pakatan Harapan (PH); Zakaria Hanafi of Barisan Nasional (BN); independent Kuan Chee Heng and Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) also witnessed the early voting.

The by-election has been necessitated by the death of the PH assemblyman, Bakhtiar Mohd Nor of Bersatu, on Jan 11.