SEMENYIH, March 2 — The Election Commission (EC) is urging all voters in Semenyih to come out and vote with at least three hours left till the by-election’s polling centres close.
With the voter turnout at 50 per cent as of 1pm, EC chairman Azhar Harun is hopeful that the percentage will exceed that of the Cameron Highlands by-election on January 26.
“In Cameron Highlands we hit 68.9 per cent of votes. We’ve gotten better since then and now the wait time for voters is at most 20 minutes. I’m hoping to hit the 70 per cent number by day’s end, so please come out and vote,” he told reporters after visiting the Sekolah Menengah Bandar Rinching polling centre.
A total of 53,411 people are eligible to vote in the by-election today which was called following the death of incumbent Pakatan Harapan (PH) assemblyman, Bakhtiar Mohd Nor, from a heart attack on January 11.
There are 24 polling centres which will close at 5.30pm.
The candidates vying for the seat are Barisan Nasional’s Zakaria Hanafi, Pakatan Harapan’s Muhammad Aiman Zainali, Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul and independent candidate Kuan Chee Keong.
After 5.30pm, voting stops and the votes will be tallied at Dewan Sri Cempaka, Kajang.
Azhar said the results should be out before 10pm.
“We’d like to get it in earlier but tentatively that’s the time were looking at to announce the results,” said Azhar.
