KLUANG - All 20 polling stations involving 109 channels for the Mahkota state by-election opened simultaneously at 8am today.
Today's voting process involves 61,274 voters. It will end at 6pm, to be followed by the vote tallying process, which will be at Tunku Ibrahim Ismail Hall here.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) predicts good weather in Kluang this morning, but thunderstorms are expected in the afternoon.
The by-election witnessed a straight fight between Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah and Perikatan Nasional (PN) Mohamad Haizan Jaafar. Both are registered voters in the constituency.
There are 66,318 registered voters for the Mahkota State Assembly with early voting for military personnel and spouses and the police taking place last Tuesday, involving 4,437 voters.
The Election Commission (EC) has also issued 607 postal ballot papers on Sept 15, in addition to appointing 1,126 officers to handle the by-election process.
The Mahkota state by-election was held following the death of its incumbent Datuk Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain, 63, last Aug 2.
Sharifah Azizah, of BN won the seat in the 2022 state election with a majority of 5,166 votes in a four-cornered fight involving Pakatan Harapan (PH), PN and Warisan.
The Mahkota state seat was first contested in 2004 and has gone through five general elections with BN winning four of them. - BERNAMA