Thursday polling day won’t affect turnout – Bernama
The Election Commission (EC) is confident that polling for the Pengkalan Kubor by-election on Thursday, September 25, which is a working day, will not affect voter turnout.
Its chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, expects the voter turnout to be more than 70% on that day.
"The choice of Thursday for voting is because most of the residents in this constituency are farmers and fishermen while only a small number are salaried workers," he said after the nomination of candidates for the by-election today.
The state constituency has 24,039 voters, including 109 early voters.
The EC has also appointed three groups of independent observers for the by-election comprising three individuals each from the Malaysian Youth Council and Persatuan Naskhah-Naskhah Kedaulatan Melayu Malaysia and two from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia who will note down the offences committed during the by-election campaign.
Aziz said the EC was spending RM600,000 on the by-election. He said 12 voting centres with 45 streams would be opened on polling day.
The Pengkalan Kubor by-election will see a three-cornered fight among Barisan Nasional candidate Mat Razi Mat Ail, Wan Rosdi Wan Ibrahim from PAS and independent candidate, Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary.
The by-election is held following the death of assemblyman Datuk Noor Zahidi Omar, 57, from liver cancer on August 20. – Bernama, September 13, 2014.
