KINABATANGAN, Jan 24 — The counting of postal votes for the Kinabatangan parliamentary by-election commenced at 2pm today, beginning with ballots from the Sukau state constituency.
The counting is being conducted at the Kinabatangan District Education Office under the supervision of Election Commission (EC) officials, with candidate agents and election observers in attendance.
A ‘live’ broadcast on the EC’s Election Academy Facebook page showed a total of 251 postal ballot envelopes being opened.
The EC had previously announced that 446 postal ballots were issued to eligible voters for the Kinabatangan parliamentary and Lamag state polls.
A total of 48,282 registered ordinary voters are eligible to cast their ballots today in Kinabatangan, while the Lamag seat has 13,515 voters.
Last Tuesday, the EC reported that 93 per cent, or 176 police personnel, had voted early for both by-elections at the Kinabatangan district police headquarters.
The Kinabatangan parliamentary contest is a three-way fight between Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Mohd Kurniawan Naim Moktar, Warisan’s Datuk Saddi Abdul Rahman, and independent candidate Goldam Hamid.
The Lamag state seat is a direct contest between BN’s Mohd Ismail Ayob and Warisan’s Mazliwati Abdul Malek.
The by-elections are being held following the death of the former incumbent, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, on December 5 last year. — Bernama
