PONTIAN, Nov 16 — The percentage of voter turnout for the Tanjung Piai parliamentary by-election as at noon today, four hours after the polling centres in the constituency were opened, is 43 per cent.

Two of the six contesting candidates, namely Karmaine Sardini, 66, of Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional's (BN) Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng, 55, were among the early voters to cast their votes at the polling centres at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Telok Kerang andn Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Yu Ming 1 & 2, respectively.

The other four candidates — Datuk Dr Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz of Barisan Jemaah Islamiah  (Berjasa), Wendy Subramaniam (Gerakan) and two independent candidates, Dr Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abd Ghaffar — are not registered voters in Tanjung Piai.

Election Commission (EC) chairman Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun was seen at some of the polling centres to observe the voting process. Among the places he went were the polling centres at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Dato’ Mohd Yunos Sulaiman, SJKC Cheow Min, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Sri Kukup and SJKC Pei Chiao.

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Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was also on the ground to observe the voting process, such as at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Seri Bunian, SMK Sri Kukup, SJKC Bin Chong and SJKC Yu Ming 1 & 2. 

At the polling centre at SK Serkat, Agriculture and Agro-based industry Minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub was among voters who queued to exercise their rights.

A total of 27 polling centres, involving 125 streams, were opened until 5.30pm today for the 52,471 registered voters in Tanjung Piai to vote for their new elected representative.

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Of the 27 polling centres, 11 are in the Pekan Nanas state constituency and with the remaining 16 in the Kukup state constituency.

So far, the weather here is fine.

Based on the weather forecast by the Malaysian Meterology Department, today is expected to be cloudy with temperatures of between 23 and 27 degrees Celsius in the morning and thunderstorms in the afternoon with temperatures between 25 and 28 degrees Celsius. — Bernama