ROMPIN: The long holiday may have played a factor in the low voter turnout in Rompin today.
The by-election saw a turnout of only 74 per cent compared to the targeted 80 per cent turnout which the Elections Commission had stated earlier.
Elections Commission director Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said Rompin voters may have had plans for their holidays earlier.
"The voters in Rompin obtained five days straight from Friday after May 5 and 7 were announced as holidays, so maybe some of them took and off-day on May 6 to make it a straight week of leave," he said.
Abdul Aziz said the EC would conduct a post-mortem to identify the cause of the low-turnout.
Voter turnout was exceptional in the first three hours of today, but trickled down later in the day.
Up to 11am, 46 per cent of voters had cast their votes, and Abdul Aziz had said that the turnout was an outstanding percentage as it averaged 15 per cent per hour.
Anything above 10 per cent is considered exceptional. However, Abdul Aziz said the turnout dwindled after 12pm until voting finally closed at 5pm.