PONTIAN, Nov 12 — Candidates in the Tanjung Piai parliamentary by-election visited Bangunan Perkep at the Pontian district police headquarters here today for a first-hand look at the early voting process.
The first to turn up was Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng, who arrived before the polling centre opened at 8am, followed by Wendy Subramaniam of Gerakan, Karmaine Sardini of Pakatan Harapan (PH), independent candidate Faridah Aryani Abd Ghaffar and Datuk Dr Badrulhisham Abdul Aziz of Berjasa.
Another independent candidate, Ang Chuan Lock, was not seen at the centre as of 11am.
The candidates hoped that police personnel eligible for early voting would fulfill their responsibility.
"All police personnel who are eligible to vote today should turn up to discharge their responsibility as a voter,” said Karmaine.
Wendy spent about 20 minutes visiting the two polling streams — for the Pekan Nanas and Kukup state constituencies, which form the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat.
Pontian district police chief Supt Mustafa Bakri Salleh hoped that early polling would be conducted smoothly.
"All officers and rank-and-file members are ready for early voting in Tanjung Piai and we hope all will turn up to vote and voting will proceed smoothly from 8am to 5pm today,” he told reporters.
He said 10 police personnel have been deployed for duty at the polling centre.
A Bernama check showed that early voting was proceeding smoothly and the weather was fine.
The by-election is being held following the death of incumbent MP Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik, 42, on Sept 21 due to heart complications.
Tanjung Piai has 52,986 registered voters comprising 52,698 regular voters, 280 early voters and eight voters who could not be present because they are overseas. Polling is on Saturday. — Bernama
