SEMENYIH: Up to 56% of the voters had exercised their right as of noon in the early voting today in the Semenyih state by-election, according to the Election Commission (EC).
EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun disclosed this to reporters after monitoring the early voting process at the polling station at the General Operations Force (GOF) 4th Battalion camp in Semenyih.
The early voting is being held at two polling stations. The other station is at the Kajang District Police headquarters.
A total of 858 of the 951 early voters in the constituency are eligible to exercise their right at the two stations. The remaining 93 voters had voted by mail.
The four candidates of the by-election - Muhammad Aiman Zainali of Pakatan Harapan (PH); Zakaria Hanafi of Barisan Nasional (BN); independent Kuan Chee Heng and Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) - also monitored the early voting.
The by-election was necessitated by the death of the PH assemblyman, Bakhtiar Mohd Nor of Bersatu, on Jan 11.
Meanwhile, Azhar reminded all the contesting parties not to violate the election rules.
He said people who had information on any offence could lodge reports with the authorities.
Azhar said police reports could not be made based merely on media reports.
On another matter, he said the EC had not received any notice of appeal against the decision of the Shah Alam High Court yesterday dismissing an originating summons filed by a voter to stop the by-election.
The voter had sought a declaration that the EC decisions made by only the chairman in the absence of the members, who had resigned on Jan 1, were null and void. — Bernama
