TUMPAT, Sept 21 — A total of 105 people or 96.3 per cent of the total 109 early voters turned up to cast their ballots for the Pengkalan Kubor by-election today.

Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah said the polling went smoothly for the early voters, which was held at Delima Hall of the Tumpat District Police headquarters.

“This showed a fairly good performance in the election today,” he told reporters here today.

The voting process started at 8 am and closed at 3 pm and voters were seen leaving the premise with a finger marked with the indelible ink to indicate that they had cast their votes.

The EC is using the 2013 Master Electoral Rolls, combined with the supplementary electoral rolls for the first quarter of 2014 that had been updated until Aug 20, 2014, for this by-election.

There are 24,039 voters in the Pengkalan Kubor constituency, comprising 23,929 ordinary voters, 109 advance voters and an absentee or overseas voter.

In another development, Mohd Hashim said the EC had received three reports on an offence pertaining to placing of flags and posters by rival parties.

The cases involved political parties on both sides and we have called them and both parties agreed to bring down their flags which obstructed motorists’ view, and also to remove posters that are now allowed to be put up,” he added.

Generally, the campaigning by political parties involved in the by election was under control, he added.

The Pengkalan Kubor by-election is called following the death of three-term assemblyman Datuk Noor Zahidi Omar from liver cancer last August 20.

The by-election is a three-cornered contest among Mat Razi Mat Ail of Barisan Nasional, PAS candidate Wan Rosdi Wan Ibrahim and independent candidate Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary.

Noor Zahidi had retained the seat in the general election held last year with a majority of 1,736 votes, beating Saharun Ibrahim of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Izat Bukhary. — Bernama