Operations, courses contribute to low turnout for early voting

PD POLLS | Participating in operations and attending courses are among the factors that contributed to the percentage decrease in voter turnout for early voting in the Port Dickson by-election, said returning officer Khairy Maamor.

"One thing I noticed was that the number of spouses of the military personnel was a bit less this time compared to during the general election. Maybe they are at their hometown and could not return to vote," he told Bernama yesterday.

Ninety percent of early voters had cast their ballots during the 14th general election on May 9, compared to yesterday’s 63 per cent, a decline of 27 percent.

A total of 4,564 out of 7,191 early voters cast their ballots yesterday.

Three polling stations, namely the Port Dickson district police headquarters, hangar of the Army Basic Training Centre (Pusasda) and PD Segenting Camp multipurpose hall were opened since 8 am.

The early voting was witnessed by the agents of the by-election candidates and observers comprising representatives of NGOs appointed by the Election Commission (EC).

After all the polling stations close, the ballot boxes were sealed and kept at the Port Dickson district police headquarters lockup and will be opened for the counting of votes on Oct 13 at the Port Dickson municipal council hall.

Khairy, who is also Port Dickson district officer, said thirteen polling streams were available at these polling stations, with 10 of them were opened from 8am to 5.30pm.

The remaining three polling streams at the police headquarters, namely Camps A, B and C, were closed earlier, at noon, due to the small number of voters there, he said.

Meanwhile, he expects voter turnout on Saturday to reach the target of 70 percent.

"If we can get 60 percent, that would be good enough," he said.

The Port Dickson by-election is the fourth by-election after the May 9 general election. The previous three were state by-elections, for the seats of Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia and Balakong, all in Selangor.

The PD by-election is a seven-cornered contest among PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim of Pakatan Harapan, Mohd Nazari Mokhtar of PAS and five independent candidates – former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Mohd Isa Abdul Samad; former personal aide of Anwar, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan; social media personality Stevie Chan; management consultant Kan Chee Yuen and a former lecturer of a private university, Lau Seck Yan.

The Port Dickson seat was vacated by Danyal Balagopal Abdullah of PKR to enable Anwar to contest and become an MP.

Polling is on Oct 13.

The Port Dickson constituency has 75,770 registered voters, comprising 43 percent Malays, 33 percent Chinese, 22 percent Indians and two percent others.

- Bernama