SEMENYIH: Polling at 24 polling centres, comprising 116 election streams, in the Semenyih by-election ceased at 5.30pm
Polling centres opened their doors at 8am to enable constituents in the Semenyih state constituency to choose their new elected representative or assemblyman.
As 4pm, the voter turnout stood at 68 per cent.
An hour after polls began, the voter turnout stood at an encouraging 15 per cent and at 2pm it stood at 56 per cent.
The EC was expecting 70 per cent voter turnout in this by-election.
In the 14th General Election, the voter turnout for the Semenyih state seat was 88 per cent out of 46,839 voters.
The Cameron Highland by-election saw a voter turnout of 68.79 per cent, Sungai Kandis (49.8 per cent), Seri Setia (44 per cent), Balakong (43 per cent) and Port Dickson (58.3 per cent).
The by-election was called following the death of incumbent Pakatan Harapan (PH) assemblyman, Bakhtiar Mohd Nor, from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), on Jan 11.
A total of 53,411 people were eligible to vote in the by-election.
The Semenyih state constituency has 53,520 ordinary voters, and 10 of them voted through post, leaving 53,411 people eligible to vote today. Early voting was held on Tuesday (Feb 26).
The total number of eligible voters is based on the third quarter of the electoral roll for 2018 and updated until Jan 11, 2019, according to the Election Commission (EC).
The respective candidates would also need to secure 6,813 votes, otherwise they will forfeit the RM5,000 deposit paid to contest the seat. The deposit is forfeited if they do not secure at least one-eighth of the votes.
A total of 996 election workers have been deployed at the polling centres concerned.
The vote tally centre is at Seri Cempaka Hall, Kajang Municipal Council in Saujana Impian, Kajang, which is now the centre of attention.
Results are expected to be announced before 10 pm.
The official campaign period began on Feb 16 and ended at 11.59 pm on March 1.
The Semenyih by-election witnessed a four-cornered contest among Muhammad Aiman Zainali of PH, Zakaria Hanafi (Barisan Nasional), Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul (Parti Sosialis Malaysia) and an independent candidate, Kuan Chee Heng.
It is the sixth by-election after the 14th General Election held in May last year. Three of them were state by-elections, namely Sungai Kandis on Aug 4 and Balakong and Seri Setia, simultaneously on Sept 8).
The other two were parliamentary by-elections for Port Dickson (Oct 13) and Cameron Highlands (Jan 26).