ROMPIN: The midweek polling date may have adversely affected voter turnout for the Tioman state seat election which recorded 50 per cent as of 3pm today.
Pakatan Harapan's candidate Mohd Fadzli Mohd Ramly said judging by the current situation, the voter turnout could be crucial in determining the winner tonight.
"During my visit today, I realised the voting channels for the young people (channel four, five and six) seem worrying. Some are deserted.
"Even at the SK Sungai Puteri polling station here where there are about 600 registered voters, only some 200 have so far turned up to vote. I was told that the midweek voting day made it difficult for some to apply for leave (from the workplace) while it was tough for undergraduates from higher learning institutions to return and cast their ballots," he said when met after casting his ballots at SK Sungai Puteri today.
Despite filing his nomination papers for the Tioman state seat, Fadzli, who is the Pahang Amanah deputy chief, had made way for Barisan Nasional's Datuk Seri Mohd Johari Hussain on Nov 29 as a sign of unity.
The decision to give way to BN in Tioman was a sign of cooperation for the unity government in Pahang and at the federal level.
Meanwhile, checks at several polling stations around the Tioman state constituency at 3pm today saw only a handful of voters waiting for their turns.
Despite the clear skies, there were no long queues seen at the polling centres and voters were all smiles as they left the premises after the process ended in less than 10 minutes.
Four polling stations on Pulau Tioman were closed at 2pm while another was shut at 3pm. The island has five polling centres while the remaining 12 centres were on the mainland.
Tioman will see a five-cornered contest between Johari, Fadzli, Perikatan Nasional's Nor Idayu Hashim, Parti Pejuang's Osman A. Bakar and independent candidate Sulaiman Bakar.