KLANG: The Election Commission (EC) announced that the voter turnout at the Sungai Kandis by-election stood at about 35& as of 2pm on Saturday (Aug 4).
An early morning shower may have also contributed to the low turnout.
The EC had targeted a voter turnout of 80 percent in the by-election which is being held following the death of its assemblyman, Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei of PKR, due to lymphoma cancer on July 2.
The Sungai Kandis state seat has 51,230 registered voters, comprising 51,217 ordinary voters and 13 absentee voters.
.A community hall and 18 schools are being used as polling stations.
According to Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Lokman Noor Adam, he noticed that there were very few Chinese voters coming out to cast their votes.
"I think the Chinese voters who are mostly DAP supporters are frustrated with the Pakatan Harapan Government for the current sluggish economic climate,'' said Lokman.
He added that some of the younger voters could also be unhappy with Pakatan but were not ready to return to Barisan yet and may thus have opted to sit out this by-election.
"I think senior citizens are also not coming out to vote as they fear that they have to climb flights of stairs to cast their votes, like they were made to do in the general election," claimed Lokman.
Pakatan candidate Zawawi Ahmad Mughni said he believed the voter turnout was low because many people worked on Saturday (mornings).
"We are expecting a bigger turnout later in the afternoon," said Zawawi.
He added that another factor could be that many were outstation attending functions such as wedding receptions.
Meanwhile, Kota Raja PAS chief Mohamed Diah Baharun issued a statement that Pakatan must be made to lose by choosing "the lesser of two harmful elements."
The Sungai Kandis state seat forms part of the larger the Kota Raja parliamentary seat.
He added the by-election was a direct fight between Pakatan/PKR and Barisan/Umno, and hence urged PAS members to disregard the independent candidate K. Murthy.
"I am urging all PAS members and supporters to vote for Barisan/Umno candidate Datuk Lokman Noor Adam," said the statement.-Star
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