PONTIAN, Nov 16 — Unofficial results showed that Barisan Nasional’s (BN) candidate Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng leads the early voting, gaining over 270 votes from advance and postal ballots.

However, BN’s share dropped from nearly 69 per cent of the early votes in the 14th general election to just over 61 per cent this by-election.

Meanwhile, Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Karmaine Sardini received over 160 votes, doubling the ruling coalition share of early votes from just over 16 per cent to more than 36 per cent across the same time period.

In the 14th general election, both BN’s Wee and PH’s late Datuk Dr Farid Md Rafik faced a three-cornered fight with PAS’ Nordin Othman.

PAS did not contest this by-election, and threw its backing behind BN’s candidate.

Out of the four other candidates this time, Islamist party Berjasa’s Datuk Badhrulhisham Abd Aziz had the most votes at 19 votes.

On Wednesday, the Election Commission (EC) announced a 91 per cent turnout for advance voting for 280 eligible police officers.

The EC also said that 235 postal ballot papers were sent out on November 3, due today.