KLUANG: Droves of voters came out early to cast their ballots during the polling day for the Mahkota state seat by-election today.
Some 61,000 voters are expected to turn out today to elect their new representatives at the state seat in the by-election, which is seeing a straight fight between Barisan Nasional candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah and Mohamad Haizan Jaafar of Perikatan Nasional.
Checks by the New Straits Times showed that voters have started lining up to cast their ballots as early as 7am, an hour before all 20 polling stations comprising 109 channels for the by-election, opened simultaneously at 8am.
Both candidates had campaigned intensively, with Syed Hussien highlighting his focus on local community issues, while Haizan emphasised PN's broader national agenda.
Polling will continue until 6pm and the vote tallying will take place at Dewan Tunku Ibrahim Ismail.
Unofficial results are expected to be known by 10pm, while the official results are likely to be announced before midnight.
Syed Hussien, who cast his ballot at SMK Seri Perdana about 9am, called on voters to come out full force and cast their votes early.