SEMENYIH, Feb 26 —Two polling centres opened at 8 am today to enable 858 of the total 951 early voters to exercise their rights in the Semenyih state by-election.

They comprised 761 who are eligible to vote at the Multipurpose Hall, Battalion 4 General Operations Force (GOF) Camp Semenyih and the remaining 97 at Dicress Room of the Kajang district police headquarters.

The other 93 early voters, comprising GOF policemen are postal voters, according to the Election Commission (EC).

The polling centre at the Multipurpose Hall, Battalion 4 General Operations Force (GOF) Camp Semenyih is opened from 8 am to 5 pm, while the voting centre at the Dicress Room of the Kajang district police headquarters from 8 am to 2 pm.

The Semenyih by-election witnessed a four-cornered contest among Pakatan Harapan candidate Muhammad Aiman Zainali, Zakaria Hanafi of Barisan Nasional, Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul from Parti Sosialis Malaysia and independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng.

The Semenyih seat fell vacant following the death of the incumbent assemblyman, Bakhtiar Mohd Nor, 57, on January 11 following a heart attack.

The early voting process is monitored by agents of every candidate as well as election observers from representatives of organisations and non-governmental organisations appointed by the EC.

The ballot papers for early voting will not be counted at the voting centres tomorrow, instead, the ballot boxes will be kept at the police, and on March 2 , they (ballot boxes) will be taken to the counting centre specified by the EC to be counted.

The Semenyih state constituency has 54,503 registered voters, comprising 53,520 ordinary voters, 951 early voters and 32 absentee voters. — Bernama