36pct voter turnout for Padang Serai, 35pct for Tioman as of noon

 

Some 36 percent of voters have cast their ballots in the Padang Serai parliamentary seat election as of noon today.

As for the Tioman state seat, about 35 percent of voters have turned up at polling stations to exercise their right to vote.

The Election Commission (EC) provided the figures in its hourly turnout updates on Twitter.

According to EC data, there are 132,955 voters in Padang Serai, and 28,108 in Tioman.

A total of 46 polling centres with 230 voting streams in Padang Serai, and 17 polling centres with 52 voting streams in Tioman will be open until 6pm.

Polling for the two seats could not be held simultaneously with GE15 on Nov 19, following the death of candidates, namely M Karupaiya of Pakatan Harapan for Padang Serai and Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Md Yunus Ramli for Tioman.

Karupaiya, 69, died on Nov 16, believed to be due to a heart attack and health complications, while Yunus, 61, passed away on the original polling day.

The contest for Padang Serai is a six-cornered fight among Harapan candidate Mohamad Sofee Razak, C Sivarraajh (BN), Azman Nasrudin (PN), Hamzah Abd Rahman (Pejuang), Mohd Bakhri Hashim (Warisan), and independent candidate Sreanandha Rao.

However, Warisan withdrew from the race on Nov 24, while BN declared on Dec 2 that it was giving way to Harapan for the parliamentary seat.

Meanwhile, candidates battling for the Tioman state seat are PN’s Nor Idayu Hashim, Mohd Johari Hussain (BN), Osman A Bakar (Pejuang) and Sulaiman Bakar (independent).

Harapan’s candidate Mohd Fadzli Mohd Ramly is making way for the BN candidate to increase the latter’s chances of winning, but Fadzli’s name will still be on the ballot papers.

This is because the EC does not allow the status of the candidates to be changed after their nominations have been accepted. - Mkini